^' 




■^ 



l£ 






/ 



THE SOUTH 

BEFORE AND AT THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. ^ v y 

-A. D rm E s s 

OK 

LEIGH KOBINSOIsT 



(Formerly of the Richmond Ho\vitzers) 



OF WASHINGTON, D. C, 



BEFORE THE 



AT THKIK 



ANNUAL MEETING, 



THE CAPITOL IN RICHMOND, VA., NOV. I, 1877. 



RICHMOND: 

JAMES E. GOODE, PKINTEK. 

1878. 



X- 



Published by order of the Virginia Division of the Army of North- 
ern Virginia. 



WM. H. F. LEE, 

President. 



GEORGE I_. CHRISTIAN, 
LEROY S. EDWARDS, 

Secretaries. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



That illustrious num, the lion. J3ai'd\vcll Slote, took credit to 
himself, which, surely, will not ho denied hy others, for the self- 
restraint he evinced, in only reading to his friends one-half of the 
discourse he had prepared for Congress. Sensible of the admiring 
glow, which nuisl always genially diffuse itself, in the breasts of 
the ardent and impulsive, at the thought of such engaging and 
unexpected charm in an orator, I am, naturally, desirous of stating, 
that not the whole of the herein-contained address was pronouiu'ed 
before the Society, whose voluntary act brought it down uj)on their 
heads. Among the many trials of a much-suffering people, that of 
listening to every one of the jjages which follow is not to be num- 
bered. The sins of omission, indeed, were far fewer than could 
have l>een desire<i, hy a natural lunnan infirmity; while those of 
commission were borne with a })atience, and even obliging, courte- 
ous complaisance, not possible, nor to l)e expected, in a community 
less acquainted with grief, ("andor, however, will compel those 
present to admit, with the (()ueen of Sheba, (but with what reversed 
ground for exultation!) that the half was not told them. The 
afHiction of listening to not (|uite one-half is what befell, l^ut a 
kiiidly-affectioMed audience, gi-alcl'ul for siidi sidf-abuegation in 
their favor, has been pleased to ask for ]nil)lication, in addition to 
the half which was audible, the renuiining half which, as will now 
be seen, in so masterly a manner, was withheld. It should be 
added, (hat the re<iuest itself is the less surprising, inasmuch as, 



VI 

whether nuule for one another in Heaven, or BOine widely ditforent 
locality, the two lialves, the spoken and unspoken, did not divide 
in any one place, hut, in the main, kept together, and ran side by 
side, throughout tiie aiUlress, like "two single gentlemen rolled 
into one," if the sane inind can conceive such a case. If, therefore, 
in the complete publication, anyone find that which, to him, shall 
seem better unpublished, (as doubtless all who read it will tind 
very constantly,) let liiin ascribe it to the part not spoken; not to 
the taste of the audience, hut to the original sin, and present total 
depravity, desperately perverted and improper nature of the author, 
which has become "bone of his bone and tiesh of his flesh," wholly 
irreclaimable, it is feared, "till death do him part" — if then! 

L. R. 



ERRATA 



au;!' 14, line 19 from toyi, strike out the word ''whicli." 

:iiX<' I'i. line •') from bottom, for " anaiiKjly," read ••anomaly." 

ai^e :)4, line 14 from top, tor •• Hypoc:rits," road •'Hypocrites.'" 

is^e 43, last line, for ^^K>i," read ^^En." 

ii;'(' Tii, lint' 14 from top, f<.>r ■'Sa/utamiir,'' read •'.S'rt/«ici»<//.s-." 

i'^r 7'.», line .'I from top. I'or •' Cycopa'dia '' road '• Cyclojia^dia." 

ii;e !KI. line L' from top. strike out the word "of."' 

lye '.i4. line i< from bottom, for " hypmrieies,'' read " liypocrisie! 



A_DDRESS. 



I. 

Fellow-Soldiers: 

I will not detain you by the expression of the 
pi-i<le with which I received, and the sense of the honor to myself 
with which I accepted, the invitation to achlressyou. From either 
feelini;- excessive vanity alone could save me. ]*)ut it is of moi'e 
consequence, just at present, lioth to you and to myself, to show 
my appreciation of the compliment liy at least my own cndeavoi' 
to discharo-c, as best I may, the duty it imposes — tlu' duty at all 
times difficult, at all times delicate, of reconntina; with due sensi- 
bility and without undue eagerness, honorable exploit with which, 
however humbly, we feel ourselves identified. 

There is a reply of some celebrity from a Spai-tan to a rhetori- 
cian, who proposed to ])ronounce an euloginm on Hercules. -'On 
Hercules," said the Spartan, '■who ever thonght of blaming Her- 
cules?" And certainly man's valor, the hero's fear of evils greater 
than death and temi)oi'al disaster, by virtue of which he is man, 
and has virtue, as it does not require apology, on the one hand, 
not unliecomingly, perhaps, may dispense with eulogy ou the 
otlu'i'. Charles V said: ''How many languages one knows, so 
uumy limes he is a man." llow, then, are we to reckon the l)oly- 
glot Mezzofanti, who carried the tongues, not of all literatures 
merely, but well nigh of all artic-ulale sonnd, in his head, speaking 
one hundred and fourteen languages in all, yet leaving no memo- 
rable word in one? The tongue of fire, by which language is not 
only uttered but informed, and made itself a vital spark, was not 
among his members. JIow shall we compare this wonder of all 
tongues with Latour d'Avergnc, "the first grenadier of France," 
for whose death, while repulsing tlie front rank of a charge of 



last, a remnant \vhie]i rose above the carna<^-e of war. tbe ruin of 
homes, the cry of distress, still gathered around a chieftain's form 
with the self-immolation of tiespair. All this it must tell and 
truly, il' need be, severely tell. 

Surely it is now hig-h time to admit that, with such object in 
view, you have^ applied to a quarter where, in the nature of things, 
the details of such knowledge must be plentifully lacking. You 
have apjjlied, not to the oilicers of the field and statt', who led your 
hope, wielded and organized your force — to none of these renowned 
men, but to one far different ; to a private soldier in the lowest 
rank, and greatly undistinguished there. An obscure artilleryman, 
esyjecially when under fire, is liable to take the same dispassionate 
view of a conflict i-aging all along a line of miles as the average 
politician seizes of the moral universe, of which, curiously enough, 
he, too, is a part. The plenroncct(e, or flat fish, having eyes only 
on one side, are badly l>uilt for the vocation of tourists or descrip- 
tive voyagers; but a man whose whole duty for four years was to 
follow l^lindly, sud<lenly ordered to look, not on one side only, but 
on all sides — tluit, too, after the lapse of years — is worse oft' than 
a riat fish, or any other kind of fish, except, of course, a fish out 
of water. As the cockney tourist said to the Highlander, who 
addressecl him in (Jiclic, '•.Some e\])lanati()n is necessary." Most 
unaffectedly 1 am embarrassed to find myself a critic of the deeds 
of them who led the history which I but followed. Nevertheless, 
it must be acknowli'ilged that to every leader, were he the givafest, 
a follower is a quite indispensable a|)pendage. Furthermore, in 
our cause, it may be said (hat leader and follower wci'e one. We 
were his to follow; he was ours to lead, lie was In the van, 
because the hearts he led were in the van, and we followed uncon- 
scious we were drawn. It seems you are resolved to know how 
this great matter shaped itself to tlu' coiiiinon soldier; Innv his 
mind, numerically the gi'catest, reconciled itself to the situation, 
and with deeiiledly ai>])ruving conscience volunteered his body to 
be made food lor ])oW(h'r. Not so illogically. after all, ])erhaps, for 
\-oiir ■• l)ot toiii facts" you have gone to your l)ottom man. The 
l)lo(jd I shall shed to-night be on vou. 



Any poi'ti'ayal of any one of (he scenes of onr great civil stril'e 
is iiiconiy)lete which lias not for Ijackground the depth and sincerity 
of conviction in the South, which rallied ever}- principle of duty, 
and. answering exaction with devotion, made o))cdience a privilege. 
The history of the war minus (he just iticalion of the war, it seems 
to me, were t lu' ])rincipal chai'acter omitted. We believed in our 
capacity for local sell'-goveriinient ; we helieved in our right to 
comiuunity inde])endeiice as the best menus of attaining the honest 
welfare of a neighboi'hood. We bcdieved in a Federdl Union, and 
deemed this tantamount to saying we bi-lieved in repuljlican insti- 
tutions — not the fancy, l)ut the reality of commonwealths. We 
believed that the Itest way of i)reveuting the foot of one from 
striking against the fetlock of another was to interpose a barrier; 
to ]trovide. or rather to reserve, (he ])Ower to escape,' from it, thus 
giving the remedy to them Avlio feel the wrong — not like the iloly 
Alliance, to ilieni who cause it. Finally, we believed that such 
was tiie nature of the Federal compact to which we had acceded, 
and that it was best for simplicity, best lor ecouom}', best for peace, 
best for liberty, that it should be so. 

On the other hand, the cent rali/.ations which antagonize all this 
seemed to us to concentrate wealth and power in one quarter by 
abstracting it from others, not always pre])ared or content to 
spare; in this way to a<'cniiiidate great wealth and greater ])0V- 
ei'ty: to re]denish tlie palace and plunder the cottage; make the 
rich ricdier and the ])Oor poon'r ; the strong more absolute, the 
weak more helph'ss. Vast ein|)ires. immense populations and re- 
sources have been administered by governments of this kind, but 
invarialdy under the shadow of domestic sedition. The}^ rest on 
a sleeping lion. i'ower which is false in its methods must needs 
be 0])]iressive in its measures. Jjouis Napoleon wielded just such 
a sce])tre; but when he wished to join the shooting l>arty of one 
of his sultjects lie went umler the ]U'otection of the ])olice, and 
when he visited Baron Eothschild the whole establishment was 
put under surveillance for two weeks beforehand. He said, "The 
empire is peace;" aiul in what a wliii-JwiiHl (li<l he and his rotten 
empire swee]) from the earth? It is ]u-ei)osterous for lualadmini.s- 



tration to say, "Let us have peace!" and for freeman it is worse — 
it is criminal to concede it. It is not peace established in power, 
but cai)tured in shame; not throned on high by willing* witnesses, 
but ])inncd to the earth by imperial steel — the peace of the bayonet. 

The Czar of liussia is an Kmpei'OJ" of the same kind, and the 
touch of a sick man's lance lays bare his rottenness. Only because 
it is a sick man who opposes him, sick of the same corrupt in- 
firmity, is no more done to him. A rose-colored correspondent, 
writing from the JJussian camp, assisted by decidedl}" Russuin peb- 
bles, admits the cardinal fault of the Ivussian arm_\' to be "the total 
want of initiative. Something in the im])erial system seems to 
stifle and kill the ])Ower of indivi<lual action.' 

"No country," writes one in the October numl)er of the Eu- 
ropean Messenger, published at 8t. Petersburgh, '"ever carried out 
so great a nund^er of reforms in so short a time as I'ussia has since 
185G ; but in several dc^partmeids. such as justice and tiiiance, 
there is still mu(di room foi' im])rovement." X^iduckiiy, it happens 
that the two departments of justice and finance are the aljiha 
and omega of the well-governe(l State, or I'ather. as reform in the 
second of these is the corollary of reform in the first, flowing im- 
mediately thei"eiVom, say at once justice is the beginning and con- 
summation of political relbnn. rnluckily again, it is this elemen- 
tary, to him rather stupid, common])lace dejtart ment, whi(di the 
expeditious reformer is ])rone to ski]) over, while with much steal- 
ing and false swearing he j)ushes on the exaltation of the human 
i-ace ; justice in turn being a])t to stand in the way of the greatest 
nundii'i- of reforms in the sliortt'st possilde time. Xo( withstanding 
so many i-eforms in sncb incredible short time. ]»ussia shows her- 
self, as Diderot said of her in the last century. "'rottiMi before she 
is ripe." A reform IVom wiiich justice and tinanci- are omitted is 
a vi'r\- characteristic nineteenth century refoi'iii. 

We lu'ld that such a go\-ernment was not for tlu' piddic good, 
but for the public wrong, and by men and ]»at riots should be 
resisted. '• ^Ve,■' said the barons of Ai-ragon to their king, -'who 
are each of us as good, and who ai'c altogethei- more powerful than 
you, promise obedience to your government if \-ou maintain our 
rights and ])rivileges, but if not, not.'' .Inst such a basis has been 
the origin to every govei-nnnnt of I'jirope. of whatever greatness 
and fre('dom it has enjoyed. Justin ])i-o|)ort ion as this l>asis has 



been retained, each lias retained its real power, and Just in propor- 
tion as it has not, not — in which latter category, unhappdy, Arra- 
gon has been included. Even a government of the numerical 
majority may be a true self-government, without tiie self-confession 
and antithesis of a standing army to enforce it, as witness the 
States of Switzerland. The French revolution was possible in the 
shape which it assumed, because administrative cc'uti'alization — 
Tutelle Administrative — had swallowed up the ])rovinces, and made 
Paris the throat by which a whole people could be collared and 
garrotcd. The Eeign of Terror was little more than a democratic 
ap])lication of the Old Keginie. It was the combination of des- 
potism and "'equalit}'." so-called. In a word, this idea of local self- 
government has been the vital germ of free institutions wherever 
th.ey have existed. Bunsen finds this fact in the twenty-seven 
nomes of ancient Egypt, and infers liberty then aiui there as a 
consequence. The same independent basis, surviving in llindostan 
all the revolutions of Hindu and Mogid, is referred to in a minute 
of council, by Sir Charles Metcalf, as the true cause of the j)reserva- 
tion of the people there through all the changes they have sutferi'd. 
There was a time when the l^mperor of (Jermany was no more 
than the elective magistrate of an aristoci'acy of princes. It is 
the emulation of States which is the great spui- to their ]u-ogress. 

It was the emulation among the States of Italy w bi( li kin- 
dled the early ages of the Roman Republic. In the cradle of 
the later Italian reptiblics modern civilizatu)n awoke. It is a kind 
of loose confederacy, the outgrowth of religion, treaties, and inter 
national law, wliich gives the nations of modern Europe some of 
the advantages of a European commonwealth, makes them spec- 
tators and critics of each other, and stimulates each to strive with 
rivals for the mastery. 

Nor is independence and the strength of independetu'C the oidy 
blessing. Fron\ the ])assion of free thought beautiful thought 
naturally rises. Beauty, no less than freedom, may be served. 
The grand eye of Goethe, glancing at a map of France b}' Dupin, 
in whifh some of the departments were marked entirely in black, 
to denote the mental darkness prevailing in those parts, incites 
him to ask: ''Could this ever be if la belle France had ten centres 
instead of one ? * -1= * I'^'ankfoi-t. Bremen, Kamburg, and 
Lubeck are great and splendid cities. Their influence on the pros- 



8 

perity of Germany is immeasurable ; but could they remain what 
they are, if dejjrived of their soverei^-nty — they were to be degraded 
to the rank of provincial towns in some great (rcrman Empire? 
I have reason to doubt it." When was it that Greece was the 
forehead of the world, as well as the lieai't which drank and ren- 
dered back i"ls beaut}'? Was it Avlien her once sovereign States, 
planed of their edges, were stuck, carl)uncle shape, in Alexander's 
ring, or was it when the planes of her i-ose-dianiond had eacli a 
focus of its own? Grotc epitomized many histories into one ])ara- 
graph. when hi' wi'ote of Athenian supremacy: "Every successive 
change of an armed ally into a tril)utary — every subjugation of a 
seceder — tended, of coui'se, to cut down the numbers and enfeeble 
the autliority of the Delian Synod ; and what was still worse, it 
altered the reciprocal relations and feelings both of Athens and 
her allies, exalting the formi-r into something like a despot, and 
degrading the latter into inere passive subjects." 

To dro]i wise saws for modern instances: See the Dutch 
re))uh]ic in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries! See a 
league of seven crowned with ])rei'minence in commerce and 
manufactures; see them becoiue the workshop, the granary of 
many; adorn harboi's with tleets, cities with elegance, a populous 
land with plenty; see them biiild the emporium to receive 
and distribute to ICui'ope the trade of Asia, till libraries, fill 
galleries — the country of Rubens, Kembraiidt, Descartes (by adop- 
tion), Gi'otius, Spino'/a; belt the earth with colonies, lead the agi- 
tation for civil and religious liberty; making of the drain a states- 
man, of the dyke a hero, like an incantation of enchantment 
wrench from the se;i the soil for a mighty ])eople ! If one were to 
ask, " Hut can this rope of sand" (as it is fashioiuihle to call a fede- 
ration) "maintain itself, can it fight?" it Avere enough to answer: 
The S])aniard, rallying in the rock}' Asturias, by the I>rave. lirni ])a- 
tionce of eight centuries had collected the strength to hurl the 
invader from his shore. Inch by inch he had fought his way from 
the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, to find, as is wont to hajtjjcn to 
such al)solute success, he had vanquishe(l tln> fear without to try 
conclusions with a more sul)tle foe within. Tiici-e came a day 
when ('oluinl)us gave a n(^w world to Castile and Leon, and con- 
quest and marriage! supremacy in the old to the sovereign of 
Spain; when Cortez could say to Charles V, "I am the man who 



9 

has gained you more provinces llian your lather left }'ou towns;" 
lull it was a day wherein the virtue oi" Sjiain had been exchanged 
lor liei- ein])ire. This Spaniard, as Philij) TI, as the head of ccn- 
trali/.e(l tyranny, with the invincihle ciiivalry of Spain at his V)aek, 
hiunciied a world against the League of Seven. The King of Spain 
and tiie Indies, the dominator in Hui'ope. Africa, and America — Pha- 
raoh and liis liosts — went <lown. 'V\iv rope of s;ind the League of 
Seven ])assed over, and shines to us from afar liki' another Pleiad — 
a beacon in the heaven. 

Spain herself, when tlu' hand of a fu'rcer than .\lva was at her 
throat — the ii'on hand wliich iiad struck down Italy. Austria, 
Prussia, and hiid their heads in the dust — de'crepit Spain struck 
back in a wai' to the knife, wliich ri])ped open the reins of her 
tyrant, and joined tlie holocaust of Moscow to hurl him from his 
throne. Thanks largely to the fact thatwi^alc rulei's leaving many 
good things undone, had left undone that Inul one which had been 
so strongly commenced. Spain had not bei^n so thoroughly welded 
into one that she could be taken liy the collar upon the st'izure of 
her cajiital, but rose up with se]iarate ])rovinces. with separate 
ca]>itals. laws, and governments — Piscay. (lalicia. Andalusia, and 
otliers. 

Indeed, when once we have aj-rived at the conclusion wliich, 
unless our ])remises are wholly sans cidoftic, we must arrive at, 
that robberies, violences, murders, wrongs, and injustices are to be 
resisted, if possible exterminated; that ]n-o])erty, liberty, life, right, 
and justice are to be established for the sake of each and all; that 
whi'u the injured petition there should be both the will and the 
])ower to redress; since there is a limit both to human wisdom and 
to human ]tower, it is no vei'v abstruse metajdiysics to suggest that 
the limit be not exceeded; that the law ward of the state l>e com- 
petent to his jurisdiction. When loan old woman who complained 
that her husband had bi'cn killed iiy robbers the Sultan Mahmud 
regretted the im|»ossibilit_\- of keeping ordei" in so distant a part of 
his dominions, the re])ly was. ''Then wh}' do you take kingdoms 
whi(di you cannot govern?" 

Kulers at a distance, who cannot Judge for us. should not act for 
us. Rightly to manage what lies about him and within his pui*- 
view is iMiough to lay on any ruler. Hence the language of one of 
oui- early writers: '-The Federal ])owei- is contintMl to objects of a 



10 

general nature, more within tlie yjurview of the United States than 
of any particular one." Heneo the prolonged eulogium which a 
Montesquieu bestows upon the Confederate liepublic, and which 
the founders of our own took for tlieir ju'emises. -'It was these 
associations.' lie says, "that so long contributed to the prosperity 
of Greets'. ' By these the J^omans attacked the whole globe, and 
by these alone the wliole globe withstood them; for when Eome 
was arrived at her highest pitch of grandeur, it was associations 
beyond the Danube and the Ehinc — associations formed by the 
terror of her ai'ius — (hat enal»led the barbarians to resist her." It 
was in the atmos])liere of these historic truths, and the conchisions 
from them, that our Federal Union opened its eyes and began to 
breathe. '-Do not nuike a mistake in the point of your own lib- 
erty," exclaimed old Winthrop. ••There is a lil»erty of corrupt 
nature Avhich is attected both l)y men and lieasts to do what they 
list: and this Hberty is inconsistent with aut hoi'ity, impatient of 
all restraint; by this liberty 'sumus omnesdetcrlorcs;' 'tis the grand 
enemy of truth and ])eace. and all the ordinances of God are bent 
against it. But there is a civil, a moral, a Fe<leral liberty, which 
is the })ro])er end and object of authority; it is a liberty for that 
only which is just and good. For this liberty you are to stand 
with the hazard of your very lives : and whatsoever crosses it is 
not authority, but only a distemper thereof "' 

The llomans had a word for the governnieiit which has the 
piiblie good for its object — it is our word rc^public, community gov- 
ernment, a people's transaction of their own atl'airs, as it were, the 
every fact of a community realized in the administration of its 
govei-iiinent — a common weal. But another definition of a ri'pub- 
lic might be that arrangement of society which most tends to put 
the best citizens at the helm. '-You see that Childebert is a man, 
obey him," is the tii'sl and the last ])hilosophy of em]iire. Far as 
Tlior can hurl his hammer is his realm, Feudal systems grow 
upon this l)asis — tliat the strongest shall rule as far as his honest 
strength ))revails. IJoman discipline concpiers the world, because 
with it tra\-el laws and government for the world, amongst them 
the |)ri'sei-valion of local law. "They held with the plow^ what 
they gained by the sword." Norman con<]uest says: "T am 
stronger than you; 1 know how to conquer others, first having 
learned to compier myself; proclaim me, therefore, king over you 



11 

ill luiine, .since 1 am kino- over you in fact." Ijong-haircd Mero- 
vingian Donothings are nominal kings, powerless to redress wrongs, 
to repulse Saracens, who, sweeping over Spain, have penetrated to 
the heart of France. Charles Martel and Pepin, mayors of the 
pah\cc. are the real kings, and Pope Zacharias gave the decision 
which nature had alread_y given, that he who possessed the power 
should hear t lu' title of king. .Merovingian Donothings are rele- 
gated to the religious houses, where doing nothing is decorous, and 
relieved of the throne, where it is not so. At different times, in 
dirt'orent ways, societ}' passes its statute of uses, which transfers 
the legal title to the use, declares he who governs the estate is its 
master. 

Freedom has greatly other detiuitions than •' fortv' acres and a 
mule,'" though it is easy to see why this should wake a responsive 
chord in many. '-A tine lil)ert\' this," said the col)hler, " which 
leaves nu' coliiiling shoes as it fouml me." The French Terrorists 
took a more |)iil)lic-spirited view of the matter. '-'What!"' they 
exclaimed, "is this our liherty':' Can we no longer kill wiiom we 
please"?"' But justice, which is a thing of some suhstauce, whether 
practised or not, is the same under ail governments. It is not the 
law, hut the recognition of the law w hich changes. We are i'l'QH 
in proportion as we voluntarily walk therein. "Seekest thou the 
highest and greatest?"' said Schiller, '• the ])lants can teach it to thee. 
AVhat they are involuntarily, that he thou voluntarily."' When 
the tirst fountains leapeil up to the sun, the_\' fell into the hosom ot" 
the law. fhey ilid not say to the law. '-conu^ with us here, oi' go 
with us there,"" hut which way the law was, that way they sjirang. 
AVheu the rivers ran down to the sea. their law was leading them 
hy the hand. They did not say to tlu' law. '-haste thee to join us 
or he left iiehind""; hut the law saiil to the rivers, "I have need 
that you should follow me."' T.aw is not the creature of "prima- 
ries"" and -'i-ailyiug the voter. " hut a fact which men at their i)eril 
are to -'tind according to the evidence." "This is the law of 
nature and of God."' said Kpictetus. "that the hctter l»e always 
sniH-rior to the. worse." In matter and in mind, in tlu' laws of 
gravitation and the laws of thought, the greater draws to itself 
the less. The law ex]>ressly states this is the law. It is the law 
of law. We have pronounced it divine, too. reading in our Testa- 
ment that, "without all contradiction, the less is hlessed of the 



12 

greater." Among the perplexing aspects of the present day, the 
very gravest is. that faith in this as a law of morals and common 
sense, seems pnuiically extinct; that it seems, for the present, to 
be relegated to the company of obsolete dogmas, like planks in a 
platform, ]Mit there not for use bnt for ornament, which artful men 
will oil (loclaanation day declaim, but which no practical man is 
al)surd enough to act on. Let the unused talent be coddled ever 
so tenderly, or buried ever so deep, he Avho has made the five 
talents ten will magnetically draw the eleventh to him also. 

Liberty, like the glorious element of the suns, has its tabernacle 
in the highest. Tt is no easy leap to ]duck its liright honor thence, 
whatever Hotspur may think. But to divr into tlie bottom of the 
deep for it, as Hotspur would, is ])lainly unwise. It is not the sun 
we fish for in the pool at our feet — not even a drowned stm — but a 
count erll'it drowned sun. Let us fish and drag for it as we may, 
no single lock of it Avill peep above water for an instant. Liberty 
is not to l)e loolced tor in the mire — it is to be climV>ed for in the 
stars. 

The apology for despotism is, that to get the ablest and wisest 
to the front it must be accomplished by force. To have the same 
thing from preference is to have a rejmblic, which thus clothes 
itself in a iiiimaii shape. Freedom is the free doniiiiion of the law. 
A repid)lic also is the sway of the strongest, but of the strongest 
in truth; the strongest raised to supremacy on the shield of faith- 
ful followers, not the strongest tottering on the subservience of 
mercenary bayonets; the strongest planting his spear in the field 
for all M'ho love it to kiss. an<l saying, liehold my ])anner and my 
]»ledge; the strongest standing in the forefront of the state, because 
the moral ])0wer of society is in his hands; not the strongest bj^ 
an arithmetic which, like the proposed new currency, is referred to 
a double staiidard. How a man of real strength can walk upon 
the waves of human |)assion, and to a ])eo])le rightftdly infuriated 
and goaded to desperation, say "be still .'"'for them make his (piiet 
word hiw — nay more, make it gos])elI how such a man can walk 
erect in the fiame of persecution, and tirni amid the roar of ruin, 
we all saw last winter. When a party of human I'ights sent forth 
the edict, '-Let every man worthy of I'reedoin forthwith be de- 
prived of it"; and a jiaiMy of moral ideas had made of forgery 
^•clerical ei-ror,"' and of ])erjury a facon de ]iarler. in a victim state, 



13 

it wixs possible for such a man to l>e. ■•He is the anointed of God," 
says Carlyle, "who melts all wills into his own, and huvls them as 
one thunderbolt.'" Even more, then, when the crisis calls, he who 
folds them in one bosom and does not luii-1. How does a Wade 
Hampton make himself master of the situation and extort reluct- 
ant homage from the adversaries of his state ? By stratagem ? Xo, 
by character. I>y being a <lcmagogue? Xo, by Ijeing a hero. 
Because his people hated and feared him? Xo. but because they 
loved and honored they obeyed him. Always and everywhere, 
the power which is truly a master is' the power which is truly a 
blessing. 

A republic, like all noble things, has a basis of reality. It is 
"the powers that be." It is already anarchy when it is only the 
powers that seem. It is the authority of justice over iniquity, 
of greatness over baseness, of freedom over servilit}-. The only 
valid representation of society is the sincere expression of its 
powers. Vttered or obstructed, -'the powers that be" are our 
rulers; the pure honey, not the wax and gumflowers — artiticial 
powers, or semblances of powers. AVhen a community, by volun- 
tary act, selects its best elements to rule the woi-st. its wisest to 
lead the weakest, the community is free, as any individual is who 
submits his will to his reason. The best government which is pos- 
sible, then, rests on the consent of the governed. Great is the 
power of a common cause and common sympathy. Only the other 
day. when Germany crashed through a pageant emperor, as it 
might smash a crown of pajXM' from a paj)er king, then it was that 
the imjirovised forces under Leon Gambetta held at Jjay for months 
armies flushed Mith conquest over an empire felled in as many 
weeks. It is a nascent republic, with all the mortgages of corrupt 
empire and previous revolutionary frenzy u})on its hands for 
redemption, which has wi^n that victory of our time more honor- 
aide than wai'"s proiulest — the payment of deltt to the uttermost 
farthing. By the side of this victoiw of self-ilenial, self-coiujuest, 
the victory of others over her is ecli])sed. 

A Berlin pa])er re])resents two good burghers of that city con- 
versing: 

First l^ruuriER — "So we are likely to have another war with 
France ?" 

Second BrRtuiER — -Let us |»ray they may thrash us. so that 
they may be as poor as we are. " 



14 

The state which can say, "My suiTOundings are my own, held 
in donations from and in dclinqucncc to no other"; which can say, 
"T l)cslo\v more hcnetits than T receive; I lay others under obliga- 
tions, not others me," that state is conqueror. It is with commu- 
nities as it is with individuals in this resjiect. 

The North i{nd South have wrestled in more than one great 
debate, which should not be omitted in any jiroper account of the 
causes of the war and our convictions touching them: that over 
the liank of the United States, when, in our young vigor, we struck 
at the dangerous evil and source of evils involved in great national 
coi'porations ; that over internal improvements, the farce and fraud 
of a paternal government on a colossal scale, where the paternity 
was liable to change its offspring every four years; the specious 
plea of ])rotecting American industry, put forward in the tai'iff 
controversy — the ruinous fallacy of a government of subsidies, a 
government of the lol>lty — the most shameless, the most justly 
odious kind of class government. This last was and is so much 
legislative legerdemain : like ail radically ^msound legislation, is 
accom])anied by a self-cancelling process, and whinh , as was 
announceil by the ])resent Secretary of State at a late banqiiet of 
the (Miamber of Commerce, has finall}' reached the remarkable 
reduetio ad ahsurdum of tariff provisions, which equally disable us 
from luiilding ships on this side of the Atlantic, or Imying them on 
the other. Such is the anti-climax of a system which "appealed 
to the human heart" and the like foi" the poor nmn's sake, but 
which has so much more nearly ruined him. with our sliips swept 
from the sea. and our ])ul>lic lands fi-om the face of the earth. 
John Handolpb (a name never to be mentioned without a feeling 
of reverence for honesty, courage, and genius in statesmanship,) 
was amazed that the votaries of hunumity — persons who could 
not slee]). such was their distress of mind at the very existence of 
negro slavery — should persist in pressing a measui-e (the tariff), 
the etbM't (t{' which was to aggravate the evils of that condition by 
inipovei'isbinii: the nuistei'. 

It was part and ])arcel of our doctrine to oppose the concession 
of vast powers whei-e there was no common interest. Whenever 
legislation, springing fi'oni other communities not having a com- 
mon interest with us, but an uncommon interest against us, sought 
to dictate to us, to say, "In this Avay shall you approju-iate your 



15 

means, not as you wish, but as we requiix'/' we said, "This is an 
iiifi'ini»-ement on our rit;-ht of self-government; this is not govern- 
ment wliieli rests on the consent of the governed, l)ut fraud and 
spoliation in the teeth of their protest." To all central jobbery 
and contracting we said, in effect: "Public spirit and immunity 
from government intrusion are reciprocal;" and we were right. 
|)is|)roporiion between expenditure and value is (diai'acteristic of 
works undertaken under the auspices of government, and neces- 
sarily so when the government is a corrupt one, made so by the 
Jobs it undertakes. "Jt is from local leaving alone," says Victor 
JLugo, "that English lil»erty took its rise." This was our general 
lone, though neitlu'r so invariable nor so unaninu)us as could be 
desired. ■You have no right," we said, "to force us to purchase 
from you at doul)le and triple ]>rices ; to legislate your w^arcs into 
our homes, and our purses into your pockets. Tt is idle to say you 
do not com])el us to buy in one place, when you ])rohil)it us from 
buying ill any other."' Protection said: "Sell to us in a cheap 
market, buy from us in a dear one. You, the millions, who now 
l)uyiron from abroad, agree that the price of this be raised to such 
a ]ioint as will justify tin- employment of labor at American prices, 
ami still leave al)uudant supplies for ])rotits:' you, the millions, 
incur this enormous addition to your expense, that we, the dozens, 
may reap it in our |)rotits. We will ])ay tlu> wages ol" our labor 
out of the industry of yours; you to do the work-, or, what is the 
same thing, employ the labor, we to pocket the proceeds." This 
species of whok'-souled |)alriotism has of late been exhibited with 
something of the deibrming ]>owei' of an a])])roximating class by 
the concentratiou of the system within the limits of single cities. 
The I'ing-master says : ■• Ik' ]iatriotic : freely cast your ])ortion into 
the publie treasury, that I may take it out. ' 

Xevei- was there a falser ])lea than that such a system as this 
woulil render American industi-y independent. It was a system to 
render it dependent in the worst of all ways. It was a system to 
render cajiital corrupt and lalior servile. An American Declara- 
tion of 1 niK'])cndence on the lips, and American systems ot' pro- 
tected industries in the hands, were a modern way to ask for 
Easau's blessing with Jacob's voice. Protected things, unless self- 
protected, ai'c never indejtendent. Independence confei'i-ed by 
statute is an undi'vout inuiuination of these times. Tn the interest 



16 

of prosperity, in tlic^ interest of tranquility, no measure could be 
falser than the creation of a great central vortex, drawing every- 
tliing into its eddy. lias not this heconie the very marrow of a 
struggle for very life — more and more rage of opposites over a 
prize of contest ever growing in dimensions, until now, when to 
gras]i it is to wield the power of the Czar, and to lay it down, is, 
in the language of Dean Stanley, ''to lay down a scey)tre" and be 
an "ex-sovereign"? Our system elevate(l an iid'erior race; theirs 
has degraded an equal one. 

Then there is the (question of African slavery. As to this the 
tbllowing. which appeared, from the pen of a competent as well 
as disintei-ested observer, in MacMillaii's Magazine for May, 1863, 
is pertinent to the issue: 

Thomas Carlyle on the American (^)uestion — Jliad (Americana), 
in nuce: 

Vv:vvM of the North (to Paul of the South) — '-raul. you unac- 
countable scou]idrel. T find you hire your servants for life, not by 
the month or year, as I do! You arc going straight to hell. 



Pail — ••(iood words, Peler! The risk is my own; 1 am Avill- 
iiig to take the risk, llii-e _>'our servants by the month or day, 
and get sti'aigbt to heaven; leave me to my own method." 

I'ktkk — --Xo. 1 won't; I will beat your brains out first!" (and is 
trying drcailfuUij ever since, but eannot yet manage it.) 

Self-government, the reduction by ourselves of our own unruli- 
ncss toorder, is tar the greatest mii'aele a inoi-al nature can exhibit. 
It never has I)eeii and is not now a (piite universal trait, but has 
I)een and seems destined tor soiiu' time to rt-niain the gi'andeur of 
an inimoi'fal few. The few ai'c; our real rulers, lender all govern- 
ment it is the few who govern: but iindei' tiu^ absolutism of a 
luinierical majoi'ity it is the corrupt few. The safely in a multi- 
tude of counsellors is much greater to ihc ciMinscllors than to the 
counselled. l»obes|)ien'e, incoriMijtt ibk' charlatan that he was — an 
ananioly in the mounteliank breed — was able to see and to say, 
"La verfu fut toujoui's en minorite sur la teri-e" The free are the 
few. They are, as Cowper says, 'AVhoin tin' truth nudces free." 
Bel ter for (Jowper's ])eace of nuiid had he seen the cori-elative of 
this, which (<(ethe supjilies us with: "None are so grossly enslaved 



17 

as they wlio falsely believe themselves free." When you can take 
the equal step of freedom, you are prepared to march in the rank 
of freedom, and the soil under your feet becomes free soil. Before 
that, resiy;nation to the durance of the awkward squad may be 
most tittini;. The chosen few make the chosen jieople. 

It was our belief that we had a population within our borders 
which was not capable of self-government; which was dependent 
upon the control and dominion of others. It is a solecism to say 
that a savage can bo free. You can emancipate him from the hand 
of a superior, but in doing so you hand him over to his own vices 
and incoherences; you "grave the name of freedom on a heavier 
chain." 

Could thirteenth and tifteenth amendments, by the stroke of a 
pen, translate slavery into freedom and self-government, all men 
must rejoice. Great things are not wont to be done with this 
degree of ease, especially this thing. Freedom, like other forms 
of greatness, tirst takes on itself the form of a servant. The tran- 
sition from slavery to Irecdom is precisely that transition the most 
civilized must pass through, with repeated failure and repeated 
pain, when he ceases to be the slave of a])pearance and becomes 
master of himself; performs that highest of moral acts — his OM'n 
self-governnient. Such transition, unspeakably im])ortant as it is, 
in the deepest and truest sense inestimable, is a question rather of 
authentic fact than of any legislation. Legislation does not yet 
create. liegislation properly re|)resents. We have now, it is said, 
an cmaiicijtated country. But how? Fi-oin fraud, from rings, 
from well-nigh universal perjury and peculation — from these are 
we emancijxxted? If the auction of slaves is bad, is not the sale 
of freemen worse? 

Through the streets of the Federal metropolis daily passes a 
black cloud of human beings, handcuffed and guarded, (of late 
years caged ami di'iven,) despair, or sometimes stolid, even care- 
less indifference, on their faces. These are emanci])ated slaves on 
their way from the police court to the jail — disenthralled from the 
cuffs of the overseer to be enthralled in the handcutfs of the law. 
The negro, it would seem, is Cuffee still. Misguided! Alas! They 
who so need guidance told to guide themselves through a wild 
welter of crime and vice; in the infirmity of idleness and want 
told to steer themselves by their own ignorance. At last the 
2 



18 

emancipated goes to the magistrate, with more or less directness, 
saving: "Have me arrested in this, for me. impossible task of self- 
government. Suffer me to retire from a world I am unable to 
master, but which so invariably masters me, to the religious retreat 
of criminal classes, known as penitentiary, that I, who know not 
self-c-ontrol, there, at least, may be controlled, be mastered — in that 
'divine institution' seek" repentance carefully, with tears."' 

The mortality of the negro, as compared with his former prop- 
agable quality, does not escape notice, the true explanation of it 
being undoubtedly the following, from the Xew York Times : "The 
causes which lead to this terrible death-rate among the colored 
people need not long be sought after. They neglect or starve their 
offspring, abandon the sick to their own resources, indulge every 
animal passion to excess, and when they have money spend their 
nights in the most disgusting and debilitating debauches." The 
negro is not called upon to survive in the South the hostility dealt 
out to the Mongolian in San Francisco by the "Thousand and 
One." Were this the case, it might be asked: "Is it so kind, then, 
to throw a weak race in competitive, and therefore inimical, rela- 
tions with a strong one? But the negro is called on to be fit to 
survive his own inherent infirmities, and finds this no easy matter; 
wherefore the Times asks, in the article above quoted: -Are the 
negroes going the way of the Indian? Are they being civilized 
off the face of the earth?" The abolition of slavery by the aboli- 
tion of the slaves — is that something to shout hosannas to on the 
score of humanity? This is. indeed, to "put slavery in a course 
of ultimate extinction." Was it not worth while for humanita- 
rians to think of the possibility of this before having recourse to 
revolution and ruin? It is John Stuart Mill, the liberal, who says 
"Despotism is a legitimate mode of dealing with barbarians." 
And now comes Mr. Redfield. correspondent of the Cincinnati Com- 
mercial and old-time abolitionist, with the news that the negro "has 
little more idea of sanitary rules and laws of health than a horse; 
that although nearly all the Southern cities have made praise- 
worthy efforts in the "lirection of the education of the blacks, they 
have not been able to induce them to take care of their bodily 
health, and that they are -a doomed race in America."' After 
this, might not one ask, is such emancipation a legitimate mode of 
dealing with barbarians? The proverb says, -like master, like 



19 

man." The man. in this case, before the war, was a gentle, tract- 
able, generally happy slave, whose rate of increase was almost as 
superlative as his present death rate. Now the District of Colum- 
bia finds him a rutfian, gallows-bird, outragist, and mutters some- 
thing about lynch-law. Which, then, is the best master, the post 
or ante-bellum one ? 

Yet let no man doubt there was a bottom of sincerity and good 
intention to this abolition movement ; otherwise, it could not have 
prevailed as it did. The sineerest. least pretending of Christian 
sects I Quakers}, in Pennsylvania and other States, filled with the 
moral law, full of the reign of univeral justice and concord, would 
''touch not. taste not. handle not '" the unclean thing. It is a lesson, 
how sentimentalism may become deep-seated, self-righteous dis- 
ease, and cease altogether to be self-healing in the zeal for bestow- 
ing vindictive "amendments" upon others. But sincerity, at first 
humble though inflexible, was a power. Because it was sincerity, 
it said, -you must come to me." Each side must seek it. Politi- 
cians gathered around the abolitionist, like hack-drivers around 
the single but independent wayfarer. The hacks were many, the 
independence Avas one. See, therefore, what sincerity can do. even 
hypochondriac sincerity, fii"st morbid and then rabid. 

John Randolph once saw a lady making shirts for the Greeks. 
" Madame,"' said Randolph. •• the Greeks are at your doors."" People 
who are not content unless they are refonning abuses, might often 
live at home and still be content. Here, for once, was a wiee^ 
brave man, who stood upon himself, accustomed to swear in the 
wonlt; of no master; a hero in politics — the hardest of all fields 
tor heroes. Whittiers words of him deserve to be quoted: 

••Bard, Sage, and Tribune! in himself 

All moods of mind contrasting — 
The tenderest wail of human woe, 

The scorn like lightning blasting; 
The pathos which, from rival eves, 

Unwilling tears could summon, 
The stinging taunt, the fiery burst 

Of hatred scarcely human ! 

"Mirth sparkling like a diamond shower 
From lips of life-long sadness, 
Clear picturings of majestic thought 
Upon a ground of madness; 



20 

And over all romance and song 

A classic beauty throwing, 
And laurelled Clio at his side 

Her storied pages showing. 

" All parties feared him ; each in turn 

Beheld its schemes disjointed, 
As right or left his fatal glance 

And spectral finger pointed. 
Sworn foe of cant, he smote it down 

With trenchant wit unsparing. 
And mocking rent, with ruthless hand, 

The robe Pretence was wearing." 

Our Ivoanoko statesman is the honored type of the Virginia 
emancipationist — the Washington-Jefferson type — which it may 
be the future will yet hold a wiser and a braver one than the more 
vociferous and apostrophised kind. His doctrine was that true 
humanity to the slave was to make him do a fair day's work and 
treat him with all the kindness compatible with due subordination. 

The spectacle of wrong and wretchedness, the cruelty of narrow 
minds and narrow hearts all the woi'ld over, is sad beyond expres- 
sion. Think of the devoted Pole, taking his everlasting farewell 
of his home, and sent by the crudest of fask-mastcrs to rot under 
the lash in the torture-press and poison-jn-ess of Siberian quick- 
silver mines. Think of the starving millions in the East. Nothing 
could well be sadder. But most sorrowful to each should be the 
struggle of inadecpiatc natin*es with imperious circumstance at his 
o,\v,n door. Think of forty thousand vagrant children in the city 
of Now York, destined, the most of them, to be thieves and pros- 
titutes before the age of twelve. '^Phink of the tenement-house 
misery in the same city, which no crusading fanatics have moved 
Heaven and earth to assuage. I'hink- of that house, Xo. 98 North 
street, a small one too, which was discovered by the police to con- 
tain ninety-nine families, or near five hundred people. The sur- 
plus sympathies of " the over-soul " can find an inexhaustible field in 
the life of every street railway car-driver. In 1226 the titular 
bishop of Prussia wrote: "What is the use of crusading far off in 
the East, when heathenism and the kingdom of Satan hangs on 
our own l)orders, (tlosc at hand in the North?" A sermon on the 
duty of staying at home — that is, of attending to one's nearest 



21 

business, and as the very neai'cst, the circle of one's own breast — 
might be derived from many lives, which had been useful had they 
not early lost all hope of the universe, save by their own undivided 
attention thereto. The dark flood of human misery swells around 
the bannered barge of the fortunate, whose oars it propels while 
receiving their stroke. Saei'ed forever are the chosen few who 
have lifted the burdens from the shoulders of the weak by placing 
them on their own; who, in this way, have borne in their own 
persons the transgressions of others; who once crucified, are now 
ascended. Here on earth they were filled with warm, manly 
poignancy, with soft, feminine pity for the bent forms of poverty 
and pain, the sad faces of the ineffectual, the lives of the broken 
and disconsolate, and those wretched existences which are cradled 
in despair, and suckled, one may say, on vice and disease; by 
sharing and bearing the penalty strove to mitigate the load and 
the guilt. Surely they receive the mercy they show. 

Pursue the evils which lie at your ow^n doors — fearlessly strike 
at them. Few are so unprovided but that they, too, may cast in 
their mite to the relief of sorrow and oppression. But see to it 
that the strife and the succor be not for appeai'ances only, and end 
not in substituting the nominal for the actual. The philanthropy 
which has aggrandized itself in the decay and by the decay of the 
honor and conscience of the country, the philanthropy of Freed- 
men's Banks and other such, is "suspect to me." Results have 
followed which are wont to happen when sentimental self-display 
mimics the great passions. 

It is no true boon when an external power abruptly transforms 
the whole outward circumstance, leaving the tenant of a feebler 
sphere to gra))ple with the aggregate of forces in a larger one, to 
which he stands in perpetual contradiction and disparity. The 
privilege of self-government to the inadequate, deficient — is that 
such a boon? To give tlu' blind man a rifle and tell him to hunt 
with the hunters for a living! To unyoke the dray-horse and bid 
him God-speed in wiiming the race from the swift I 

In this wise we reasoned in the 3-ear8 before the war upon 
premises which were none of our choosing, but were forced upon 
us by Old England fix-st and New Fngland afterw^ards. Twenty- 
three statutes were passed by the House of Burgesses of Virginia 
to prevent the introduction of slaves, and all were negatived by 



22 

the British king. It was well said on the floor of the Virginia 
Legislature, by John Thompson Brown, in answer to English 
invective: "They sold us these slaves — they assumed a vendor's 
responsibility — and it is not for them to question the validity of 
our title." Virginia was the first State not only to prohibit the 
slave trade, but to make it punishable with death. From her 
came the chief opposition to the slave trade in the convention of 
1787. That trade was continued for twenty additional years — not 
by the vote of a "solid South," but a solid New England. To 
New England, too, we might say: "You very obligingly sold us 
your slaves; voted like one man to keep open the slave trade; 
availed 3'ourselves fully of all the prizes of that piracy. We 
bought your merchandise; you pocketed our money." How much 
of the elegant leisure to vituperate the South has been fed by 
inheritance of wealth derived from the traffic in human flesh which 
supplied the South! The slave-traders of the North said to the 
slaveholders of the South: "You must not interfere Avith our busi- 
ness for twenty years;" and on this the slave-traders outvoted the 
slaveholders. Then, when their slave contract had exjiircd, the 
traders said: "Our conscience revolts against suffering you to profit 
by the merchandise we sold, though it docs not in the least revolt 
against retaining the money you gave. It is our duty to see 
that the consideration do not pass to you, but by no means our 
duty to relinquish that which has passed to us, nor to compensate 
you for the injury of which wo are the cause." In this transac- 
tion my eyes refuse to see the superior morals of the slave-traders. 
A writer in the October \n\mhor oi' tho Atlantic Monthly, for ISQS, 
dealing with the post-bellum as])ect of the negro — one of the agents, 
too, of reconstruction (or, as it might be better called, of doconstruc- 
tion) — has this conclusion: "In short, the higher civilization of tho 
Caucasian is gripping the race in many ways, and bringing it to 
sharp 1 rial before its time. This new, varied, costly life of freedom — 
this struggle to be at once like a race wbich has ])assed through a 
two thousand years' growth in civilization — will unquestionably 
diminisb the ])i'oductiveness of the negro, and will terribly test his 
vitality. It is doubtless well for his chances of existence that his 
color keeps bini a ))lcl)eian. * * * What judgment, then, shall 
we pass upon abru])t emancipation merely with reference to the 
negro? It is a mighty experiment, fraught with as much menace 



23 

as hope. To the wliitc race alone it is a certain and precious 
boon." And, now, can such a pcrliaps as this, "frau<^ht with as 
much menace as hope" to the black man in the South, vindicate 
the decimation and desolation of the white man? 

There are all kinds of social discipline. The King of Dahomey, 
when he ascertained, the other day, that he had to pay a heavy 
iiidemnily to Phigland, sacrificed five hundred human beings to 
projiitiate the deities. Ours in the South was more preservative 
than this. We had a system of society and subordination unen- 
cumbered by either criminal or ))aupcr class, except in so far as 
'•the sum of all villainies" made the sum total of society liable to 
indictment — a society exempt from strikes, exempt from tramps, 
exemjjt from the dissension of capital an<l lal>or, which, by a dis- 
cij)line milder, certainly, than the jail and calls on the President 
for troops, made the inferior element of society orderly, temperate, 
obedient, secure from want, and, with little exception, secui-e from 
crime ; so contented withal, that in the midst of the death-grapple 
of the hands that held the reins nothing could tempt it to insur- 
rection. Ivingsand their subsidized voices, tramps and the tramps' 
gospel, grew and were fertilized elsewhere. We did not by legis- 
lative act seek to make negroes free. We diil better: we kept 
them from being criminals. Did the South lag behind in the 
race of progress? The philanthropist is the last man who 
should make this a i-ojn-oach. It was lifting the black man up 
which pulled the white man back. The negro did not carry us, 
but we set him upon his K'gs. A tew months ago the tele- 
graph flashed over the land the news that Adam Johnson, sen- 
tenced to be hung for murder in South Carolina, "insisted upon 
the son of his old master during slavery standing by him to the 
last." In the wide world he could turn him to no other in that 
hour. Abolitionists and their civilization of scalawags and carpet- 
baggers had brought hiin to this — the freedom to be hung for mur- 
der. Twice in the past 3'ear the newspapers have mentioned how 
former slaves have gathered around the grave of one who had 
been their master, and asked and received permission to sing one 
of their hymns — in one instance themselves officiated as pall-bear- 
crs. It is touching to see how, through all the defiling foulness, 
perjuring uncleanness of carpet-bagging philanthrophy, the negro 
opens his eyes to the certain truth that his old master is his kind- 
est and wisest friend. 



24 

Take a considerably higher instance — the highest of the kind 
the country can aftbrd: 

The present Marshal of the District of Columbia, who, having 
first won his freedom by his heels, has since displayed the decidedly 
higher faculty of maintaining it by his head, with success and 
applause, visits the scenes of his youth, which, in his case, are the 
scenes of his bondage. He goes with the express object of calling 
on the man he ran away from. This should have been the most 
galling case possible. This man stands in the foremost file of his 
race, therefore is one who had smarted most under slaver}'. What 
happened? Tenderly he grasped the hand of Captain Auld, ad- 
dressed him as his old master, and begged his forgiveness if he had 
ever spoken of him with asperity or said anything to wound his 
feelings. "He came," he said, "to shake the hand and look into 
the kind old face of his master, and see it beaming with light from 
the other world." It is added: "When they parted both men 
wept." This, it must be admitted, was a strange way for victim 
and oppressor to meet and part. 

Let it be admitted that sentimentalism in politics was less con- 
tagious at the South than in some other quarters; that what is 
known and honored as philanthropy struck us as a platform virtue 
of the mutual-admiration kind; as such not greatly honorable nor 
by us honored. At no time did the sentiment of Anacharsis 
Clootz, that "the principles of democracy arc of such priceless 
value as to be chca])ly jnirchascd by tlie sacrifice of the whole 
human race," cause a quite universal enthusiasm. Liberty which 
■was rhetorical merely was not our forte. AVc did not believe in a 
nominal rc])ul)lic, which would require large standing armies to 
show free citizens the way to freedom. Liberty is in a curious 
way which demands a large standing army to drive it home and 
make it rest on the consent of the governed. Bismarck is credited 
with the ottsorvation that "a bayonet is not a good thing to sit 
down on." JIow amazed, then, he must be, to see the sovereigns 
of America gravt'ly passing an act to seat their lives, their for- 
tunes, and their sacred honor nowhere else. The truth is, their 
sacred honor just at present could phmt itself on the point of a 
bayonet without being excessively cramped; might be set down 
very hard there without sensible annoyance. 



25 

Whether to make of the inferior element a bond slave was the 
absoliitel}^ best way, is a question which may now be safely left to 
determine itself by the result of a contrary policy. But that to 
do as our enemy did, make of the inferior element a master, is the 
absolutely worst way, may, without presumption, be asserted now 
and here. If the Southern master had a slave, he had a slave 
whom he protected. If the Southern slave had a master, he had 
a master whom he respected. Moralists hereafter will be sorely put 
to it to account for the well-nigh total absence of revenge, malevo- 
lence, animosity, on the part of the negro toward his old master, if 
his past was so invariably bitter. Either his forgiveness of injuries is 
the greatestever known, or his sense of them the least. Let it be said, 
in his unqualified praise, that of all the races, the negro has made 
the best slave, has been ftiithful in that which is least; a better part, 
certainl}', than that of being faithless in that which is greatest — an 
accusation which may yet be brought against the white race of 
the country. There is hope for the negro to-day greater than any 
which exists for the Indian, because the negro is docile, willing to 
serve and obe}', and, unlike the Indian, could be made a slave of 
and be controlled by others before being able to control himself; 
because he has by nature the faculty of truly revering that which 
is higher than himself; is not, in self-devouring pride, recusant to 
it. If now. in freedom, he be persevering, diligent, as in slavery 
he was docile, tractable! Ilis slavery! lias not that and nothing 
else lifted him from the condition of African savage to that of 
American freeman, worthy by our law to cast his ballot with the 
rest, which the Chinese, who is not, and since recorded time has 
not been a savage, is not worthy to do? 'I'lie negi-o is to-day an 
American citizen, started in the race of civilization by virtue of 
what, pray? His thousands of years of African freedom, as some 
may term them, or his two hundred years of American bondage? 

African liberty ! What is it to deprive a man of that ? The latest 
intelligence on the subject is that another step toward the civilization 
of Africa has been taken by England in inducing the King of Leuca- 
lia, a district 13'ing to the southeast of St. Paul de Loanda, to enter 
into an engagement to put a stop to all human sacrifices among his 
people. Suppose, then, that human beings who otherwise are 
given over to the immolation and consumption of one another, in 
this kind of honor preferring one another, are made bond slaves, 



26 

halted in their religious and political economy, and made to cease 
to be their brothers' keepers, in this culinary way, and actually 
to begin to be useful to themselves and others, Avhat great 
rights of man are the worse for it? Noble, not ignoble, is the do- 
minion of the higher over the lower; beautiful the surrender of 
the lower to the higher, when, with pleased recognition of the 
truth, a soul bows in the presence of its master. Hard, indeed, 
must be the heart to resist the eloquence which says, "Behold I 
behold! I am thy servant." Subordination of inferior to superior 
is the supreme social act; all else is struggle, contention for society. 
Finally, jealousy of their own rights, and jealousy of their right 
to the labor of their slaves, did not blind the men of the South to 
the rights of others. When a storm of detraction and proscrip- 
tion burst upon the head of the foreign immigrant and the Roman 
Catholic communicant, it did not gather at the South, but was 
rolled back by her firm hand. It is one of the anomalies of this 
great controversy between opposing ideas and institutions that, 
after the North had proclaimed the necessity of amending the 
constitution to prevent social discrimination against the negro in 
the South, it was reserved for a hotel of the State and a bar asso- 
ciation of the city of New York to say to the race of Spinoza, 
Neander, Arago, the Herschels; of Massena, "the favored child of 
victory"; of Soult, "the man of Austerlitz;" of Heine and Meyer- 
beer, of Disraeli and Kothschild: "Come not near me, I am holier 
than thou." 



III. 

I must, however, ask you to assume, what is far enough from being 
the case, that these several differences of o})inion and causes of disjnite 
between the North and the South have now been treated of in some 
not wholly disreputable manner; and that, to a Southern audience at 
least (and this is more probable), it has been made sufficiently clear 
that justice was on the side of the South in this great controversy. 1 
pass on to say that justice, too, must be strong. To be weak when you 
have the power to be strong, is itself an injustice. It is written, 
"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." You who otherwise have 
right on your side must see to it that you have strength on your 



27 

side, else he whose iron is stronger than your gold, whose unscru- 
pulous force outweighs j-our legal right, will have judgment entered 
against you. To be intrenched in parchment to the teeth is not 
the whole of law; only a vantage ground for more readily assert- 
ing it. Without prudence, without wakeful alertness, firm, even 
fierce assertion, the mere parchment right is but a castle without 
defenders. The great wall of China seems secure enough, running 
thirteen hundred miles over plain and over mountain; every foot 
of the foundation in solid granite, the structure solid masonry. 
But without a living wall of Chinese men behind it, unconstitu 
tional Tartars bound over its "strict consti'uction" as a thing of 
course. "Your strict construction is wZ^ra y<res," they paradoxi- 
cally say. The injustice which is perpetrated in "courts of justice" 
without remorse and without rebuke, is a standing admonition of 
the real despotism which may be exercised under the names and 
forms of liberty. It is not in the letter of a constitution, it is in 
the heart of a people that freedoni is secured, if at all. The law 
protects not them who sleep upon their rights. Make yourself 
strong, soon your right becomes clear. Every man holds his own 
by this tenure. Sleepless enemies lie in wait for all prowess, for 
all endowment, and are held in check by incessant labor, incessant 
vigil. A chosen people are surrounded by Philistines, and must 
subdue them or be subdued. 

John Bright has animadverted on the South, not without 
ground, for this, that the class legislation complained of by her 
could not have been enacted if she herself had not participated 
in its enactment. Did not we, too, set the example of excluding 
slavery from the territory of the United States by excluding it 
from that which we l)estowed? — a hint which Avas ample for 
them who found precedent in such matters more often a hin- 
drance than a guide. "Long-headed men" were persuaded that 
the South, or some portion of the South, could find pecuniary 
advantage in suspending, here and there, the tenets of her faith 
resjiecting the constitution and the laws. It' men will not watch 
their own, they will lose their own. The talent which is buried 
in the earth is forfeit to him who has done dilferentlj'. It is not 
Heaven's will that men should meet together and make a constitu- 
tion and laws which may dispense with vigilance and self-vindica- 
tion. No charter of freedom can exonerate from this. Weak 



2S 

ir .. dug -sriii - f execntrre and 

^: — .. .._ im-cm^'ct'e-. - -_- ...-:.. in a c-ountry 

■="i;ere zhi j»e:T'lc haxe liir' c-hoi<:->e of iheir T Tia jsiraies — eavti man 
Lcpiziz ti_i: ie. In Iit: iaaZIr. -r-IL g^ain zni-re lisLn Le Ic^s-es by the 
c-C'TT-i" o~;-iil iri iLai ii snll hi =-:'mel->iy else the c-ivilizcd 
CLrinii:!' -srh'i' "^vlL ic'5-r ali'OgeiLrT. The c-ormpi magi^rnaT-e is 
zLi I'Li" :-graji of liie ■;-■•: 'mipi c-omim^XiLS. Tiien. "crhen a "whole 
jKr^'j'.i 15 h-M.ev-X'nl'r^i -sri-r fra:!'! ai.i l-anjcmpi-'i-y and desiirQiioa 
foLo"5r i.i the r,^i r-e-frl*. the tTy gc-es up; -L-ei "us c-hange the 
crgazic- la'sr." Xo. i3jj" mei-is' L-et lis orzaufcrally change onr- 
=>r-"re= out of dr-relioiioi. lo* diiiT iz. «:-'ji:i-cr:tix:z lo* Tvron^. At^ ont- 
TiLZi^Z'iis aei impends- Men are heard -■■:■ a=k : -Is ;* c-Te-dible our 
oppi'nenis srll 't-i si^h knaves? "Wili thev ha~e ibe audacity to 
c-'-nn;- an a.CT: '.f such inrjicrade. such shameless snl-omation?^' 
"^ly. if' yoti ha~e noi the aii'daciiy lo defend of c-ours* thev TsilL 
The kr^ve is in the "=rorId primari-y f:-? this purpose: to cut the 
tendins :: the i-alterinz "s'hen he c-eats a jiarley. The knave is 

aH against him. -^hile the other "^th the panoply of truth up»on 
hin. i:«es net stand tij-. The latter says, in eze'Ct : -My moral 

men have s-crtiiles a't-oiit doing d:ity. and another set have no 
s.cr:r][;'Le5 abotit violating it- the delate i= pri' "'"'-" en de-d. Tou 
c^annot tie red tax«e arotind the rights of . pigeen-hole 

them, and then, ly merely tellinr the se>cret,ary to proinc-e them 
at the prox-er moment, and sho-=r that they are lal-eled as you say. 

stan:-es- have t-een kno-srn to 'dis-c^rrer a marked pre-dileetion for 

exil^:nei '.: ^e n: -red right arm :; - . . -- 

ir'.-z- ao'.v e a- often it pir.<ves itseil' the re^i ras to a buLL 



ar'.-_nt tnent- ant tnem around yourselves: by omiitinsr. wboUy 

frc'nt c: voor Ttzhts. r&s-olutelv and vitriiaT.t.v stavin^r there, vour 



29 

dence." "Friend." said Mahomet, "tie thy camel and commit him 
to Proridence. ■ 

Once, when fertile plains of Italv lay expo»e»i to the har-iy 
Xorth. doughty protectionists, bearing their birth-rights on their 
backs, by dint of the swonl for circulating me<iium, entere-i into 
and enjoyed the opulence -which left itseli' defenceless. See ho^w 
manners chano^e. while the forces under them remain unchan^yeii ! 
Behold another stubborn remnant, plantei on a fb-">zen S'?il. and 
far-off harvests and nelds of snow : not cold, but warm : at slight- 
est touch turning to gold. Kings of the Huns are not wanting. 
though idifferently acc<3utre<d. Their weapons are shrewdness, 
business ability. d<x-ility to be taught by experience, aptitude for 
the oc-casion. and then tenacity, perseverance in advantage, never 
letting go. Ao^gression. insuiSciently oppose^i. is not slack to seize 
occasion. Old lines of or.ler have been surprise-.i. c-^nfaseii — their 
guns reversed against the old defenders. S<?mebo'ly blondere^i. 
somebody slept, or worse. Somebo»dy. whose duty it was to thrust 
and parry, failed at the pn.~»per time to draw his swi^ri. It is not 
haviniT riijhts which makes the freeman, bur knowing and main- 
taininiT them. The irreat victory had been won before the nrst 
shot had been nre^i of that military victory by w' " ' ' al 

afler wards was ratiiied. A four years" civil str : e^i 

and announced the majority which was already waiting to be 
counted. T" _ " victory was won when Xorthr ' :ss had 

exchaniied ~ S<"*uthern fatness: when Xor'- erprise 

hiid under tribute Southern prx.vitice; when Northern energy 
brouirht the w.->rld's cor..- Xorthern ports, made a n-ozen 

co;-i>t a chosen coast, to ■ .igrant hosts repair, its highways 

of tradic, the accepted highways: by thrift and industry grew 
green ;. ' ^ ' " - " " I with bright villages, soundin:^ with the 
whirr • -.i of factories and the mart of o.-'mmerce: 

when the mechanic, the sttvng arm of the century, dwelt in the 
Xv ■ ' ' the K">untiful acres of the South poured into his lap a 

CO- ~ booty. The one victory of the Xorth was won when. 

by legislative legen.iemain. she range-d material force on her side. 
Ileiv was a country subject to a ^ "b. was suppose-d 

to greatly limit the objects for w'. ^ ;- could be appro- 

priated — this, nevertheless?, interpreted and applied by representa- 
tives who could be appivachevi. influenced, persuade^i. Hen? was 



30 

the strategic point. Acuteness, pertinacity, the long arm and 
sinewy grip of all the athletes of greed and impecunious alertness 
won the day. 

It will never do to forget our own faults in the explanation 
of our misfortunes. It is. i^ideed. our own faults which, for 
our own sakes. it especially behooves us to bear in mind. The 
Spanish proverb says: ''You must thank yourself if you break 
vour let; twice over the same stone." It is well, however, also to 
observe that while he who permits injustice must suffer for it; he 
who commits it does not go without a day. Vainly will you ex- 
pect to hold under the sanctions of law that which has been gained 
by violation of law. Do you choose to thrive at the expense of 
the demoralization of society? Hope not to secure yourself as 
though societ}' were moral. Every victory of man's mere avidity 
is the increase of his material at the expense of his spiritual part. 
The material accumulation goes on pari passu with the moral de- 
pletion, so that a whole world arrived at unjustly were a whole 
soul gangrened by the booty. "'What is there wanting to me?" 
asked Ugolin. tyrant ot' Pisa. "Xothing but the anger of God." 
The mean advantage wins the day, to be sure; but. in doing so, 
receives wounds which can never be exhibited as honorable scars. 
Victory which is composed of a stroke under the belt is as sharp 
at the hilt as at the point. There is a pertinent proverb : " The man 
who resorts to Lynch law must not complain of the judge when, in 
some future controversy, the case goes against him."' 

Lincoln added to the regular army and made changes in the 
customs without asking anybody's leave, and in violation of the 
constitution he had sworn to support. Congress, some months 
afterwards, undertook to indemnify the President for the violation 
of his oath. But the utmost members of Congress could do was 
to be derelict in their own duty and equivocate their own oaths. 
They could refuse themselves to visit the consequences, but they 
could not by any resolution or legislation alter the fact or prevent 
the consequences of violated law. They could not prevent a whole 
people from growing familiar with oaths and laws which are mat- 
ters of convenience. When there was a law prohibiting an officer 
of the United States from receiving or paying anything but gold 
and silver, and in the face of a constitutional prohibition against 
a State making anything but gold and silver legal tender, in order, 



31 

ae it wa3 termed, "to suppress insurrection," Congress passed an 
act making paper legal tender, not only for the future, but in 
flagitious violation of existing compacts for the past : and by the 
able exertions of a subsidized press, the enormity of the act, and 
for the time being the credit of the Government which perpetrated 
it, was sustained. Long before the passage of that act a sagacious 
man ha<l observed: "Paper money is strength in the beginning, but 
weakness in the end." Congress now has its hands very full of 
paper money; but the war which was waged by it was less formi- 
dable than the war which now has to be waged against it. and the 
insurrection against stability, commerce, property, morals, it has 
promoted — a wider and deadlier panic to every interest and virtue 
of a people than Bull Run. An especially able paper, read before 
the last American Social Science Convention at Saratoga, computes 
that the legal-tender act has cost more than the war itself. 

Rings have been able to carry judges in their pockets. Partisan 
selfishness may fill the bench with unworthy creatures; but neither, 
by so doing, can fill the community with love of justice, or very 
distinctly with the sense of it. To receive a sentence he cannot 
resist, and know in his heart it is not just, but unjust, arbitrary, 
tyrannical — this is the one ignominy a man should not submit to, 
but resentfully recoil from. The great right of man is his right to 
just government. For it come to this, that the ruffian may say, 
'•I am an avowed violator of the law. therefore that much better 
than the unavowed one who visits my transgression! ' The spolia- 
tion of the public seems a clever thing for the nonce, but when 
high-haniled jobbery has made a public of tramps and criminal 
classes, it is not so clever. Moreover, a new criminal class, which 
says its phylacteries from daylight until the third hour, and deliv- 
ers a<idresses on the importance of moral culture, proves an imper- 
fect antidote to the former. Modern civilization has made it some- 
thing easier to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Phari- 
sees in the nineteenth century than it was in the fii-st. Happily, 
the knave's kingdom, after it has been gained, is menaced with 
perpetual revolt, against which the only hope is in paid Praetorian 
bands, another menace. The king of knaves is a captive on his 
throne. It is an unloved throne — by desperate numbers a hated 
throne. The very departments of such a government cannot be 
kept out of the flames — the modern purgatory by which public 



32 

buildings are said to be "cleaned out," and reputations are "saved 
as by fire." As mere matter of fact and business sense, a people 
cannot be misgoverned prosperously. 

Thus we see that class legislation, followed by a war of coercion, 
with the illegal measures to prosecute, and afterwards, avowedly, 
to consummate, have not established justice, have not insured the 
domestic tranquility, have not provided for the common defence, 
nor promoted the general welfare. They have not formed a more 
perfect union, but a far less perfect one. The North was successful 
in rolling the South in the dust, but equally successful in rolling 
up a seething mass of discontent at her own doors. Selfish politi- 
cians have accumulated Ibrtunes for themselves and their trencher 
friends, but they have accumulated under them the American 
Commune. The American Commune stands to-day, not by the 
cradle of American liberty, indeed, but by the side of that more 
modern cradle which was rocked in the torrent of anti-slavery 
agitation. The N(^rth will 3-et have cause to deplore the day 
when she loosened all the bands of society at home, in order to 
usui'p the ])ower to cnish and degrade the South. The introduc- 
tion of perjury and plain repudiation of contract into the aftairs of 
state, Xorth or South, on the plea of necessity, is the act of the 
falling man who gras])S red-hot iron for support. 

Late events have revealed ditferences between the two portions 
of the countiy which are important, as indicating which of them 
rests on the more I'eal and reliable social basis. We savages of the 
South said to the North, -^If you will remove your hostile array, 
we will govern ourselves," and afterwards made good our words. 
Now the North says: -'Will not you of the South heap coals of 
fire on our heads by doubling the army, so that we may be gov- 
erned? Inasmuch as, after great deliberation, and under the 
stimulus of panic and l)ankruptcy, as well as what is known as 
'necessity of the situation,' we withdrew from you our foreign 
tyranny, will you not return the kindness by helping to save us 
from ourselves?" The North admits itself to have the clear advan- 
tage of philanthropy, "moral ideas, ' "abstract sense of justice and 
right," and 'the best government the world ever saw." The South, 
we know, has l)een encumbered with "the old virus of slavery" 
and the carpet-bagger, which last we, in turn, admit to have been 
"the sum of all villainies," decidedly the worst government the 



33 

world over saw. an<l tlie one ins])ire(l bv the most pusillanimous 
motives: a g-overnment which made the bandit a patriot, and 
honest men banditti, ibrced upon us at the point of the bayo- 
net. Yet with the odds of merit all one way, as stated bv the 
North, the comparison in respect to ability to maintain social order, 
you see, is not so bad. It is startling enough to see the South 
countetl on to tind in her armory of strict construction, paramount 
civil power and state sovereignty, weapons to equip a govern- 
ment of sul>sidies and rings — military and administration circles. 
Not ours is the system which seeks to make States degraded and 
ilefenceless in order to have excuse for a centre which shall lie their 
sole defender; to make a tiourishing whole out of withered parts, 
a splendid union of emasculated States. 

AVithout further illustration, it may be stated as a fact which 
legislators will do well to take note of that the victim of injustice 
has ever rising in him the Inirning sense that he has l)een wronu'ed. 
A people's sleeping Samson, their staunchness, manhood, rectitude 
of life and business dealing, all the early, grand simplicity of act 
and counsel, in veiy wantonness of sleep is overborne — tirst de- 
bauched and then shorn of its plume of honor. Low aims and 
■•covetousness which is idolatry," the Philistines which lie in wait 
for this modern life, fall u])on such slumbers swiltly, fatally. In 
some sort, a triumph of strength, a righteous retribution, is meted 
out then and there, whereby the moral power of a land is not only 
fettered, but blinded. On a precarious basis such victory ever 
rests — vict(U'y which demands that wrong and framl. and lies, shall 
remain stronger than the truth and right of things; victory which 
must ln)ld its own against the true forces of society struggling to 
assert themselves. If those forces, roused at last, fill like a tliun- 
tlerbolt, strike liack in heart-breaking rage, not in strength only, 
but in idind strength, what a dangerous tiling for victory! One 
law is that the strongest for the time being shall prevail; another 
is that for the strongest to continue victor, he must have not onlv 
might on his side, but right; that is, not one might, but all the 
mights. 

Thus it is in the game of oppression. While one side gains in 
physical, it loses in moral power; the other, losing in physical 
power, does gain in moral. According to the purely military esti- 
mate ot^ Napoleon, the last is to the tirst as three to one. Thus it 
3 



34 

wiis in the wai" between the States. The fact that the odds so 
loni>; resisted by the South were more cruel than three to one, must 
always be accepted as the measure of her moral power. To her 
mind it was very clear that she had been tirst robbed and then 
calumniated; because her feathers were the brightest in the ])lume 
of her adversary, she had none left to shine in her own. The 
wealth, the factories, the opulent cities of the North, were the 
bright spoil of her tields, which had never been retaliated. A 
political l)arty which named itself '-the poor man"s frit'ud " (Boss 
Tweed and other Bosses have since done the same thing on the 
same basis) was not to our taste. The surgeon of Le Sage possessed 
the talent of turning passengers into jjaticnts by a single stroke of 
his poiiuvrd, upon whom, however, he was then willing to exercise 
his cui'ative abilities. '■ JEypocrits,'' says the Talmud, '-'first steal 
leathei" and [Ucu mak'c shoes ibr the poor." One ])ossession the 
South had not ))arted with — the hearts of her (diildren. These 
were hei's only. 

In the fall of 18')!) there came lo light a campaign document, to 
which was subscribed tlu' wi'itten recommendations of sixty-eight 
members of Congress from the IS^orth, among them the present 
Secretary of the Ti'casury. Tt contained the following: "It is our 
honest conviction that all tlu? jiro-slavery slaveholders deserve at 
once to l»e reduced to a ])arallel with the basest criminals that lie 
fettered within the cells of ourpuldic ]irisons. We are determined 
to abolish slaveiy at all hazards — in defiance of all the opposition, 
of whatever nature, it is jiossible for the slaveocrats to bring 
against, us. Of this they nuiy take due notice and govern them- 
selves accordingly." 

John Brown's raid, and the immense import of a fiasco inti'insi- 
cally mean, needs not to be spoken of lierc — an armed foray to 
liberate slaves, whert-by not a single slave was made insubordinate! 
John Ijrown, in himself, is not a man to excite invective. He has 
the atte.cting as|)ect of having stood upon his own assumptions till 
the solid earth gave way under him, as, sooner or later, it does 
undei- fallacy; fui'tber, he has l)orne, and so far as he could do so in 
his own ])ers()n, ex]»iated the consef|uences of his transgression. 
The unsound, distracted theory he held and sought to reduce to 
practice would not lie reduced by him. The slaves would not 
rise; from that day to this have not risen against thoir masters 



35 

So there Ava>» uothiiii!; left l)ut for him to fiilL Tliis, at least, ho 
did like a lirave man. and one who, in his dim, distracted way, 
souo-lit to walk bravel}'. This is not the worst of men. Would 
that we could say "the evil that he did died with him." The soul 
of this old hri<:;and, we arc often assured, and liave too much rea- 
son to believe, is still "marching on." When he took his last leap 
minute-guns were fired, the church bells were tolled in the cities 
of the North, and ]>rayers offered. The great rock at North Elba, 
beside which he is buried, and which bears his name, is now all 
written over and defaced evt'u by other inscriptions made by vis- 
itors, for whose convenience a hatchet or chisel is kept near the 
foot. Wendell Phillips said of him: '-lie had conquered V^irginia; 
made of her a disturbed State, uiudile to stand on her own legs foi 
trembling, had not the vulture of tbe Union hovered over her; 
proved a slave State to be only fear in the mask of despotism. 
Had a hundred men i-allied to him he might have marched across 
the (pnd<ing State to Ivichmond." In tbe fullness of time a million 
men rallied to him; Init "marching across the quaking State to 
I\iehmond,"" which was done with so much smooth facili4:y on the 
platform, somewhat lagged in the field. "Tlu' vulture of the 
Union'' changed sides comjdetely, and still the tremldnig legs did 
not refuse to stand up with some stoutness. '-'Fear in the mask of 
des]H>iism" disguised itself with a |)rotracted and a strano-e success. 
These i»redictions do not seem to me to rank with the very highest 
])ro]>hecy. oi- most admirable discernment into men and things, 
though ihey have been much ailmii'ecl us such, and l»y none nnn'e 
than their author. Phase-making, it is clear, is decidedly not the 
best gift of Heaven, and it is devoutly to be ho]ied will not be the 
last. Whati'vei' othei" basis society may rest on. this is the most 
worthless which has ever been apjilied to. 

In the fullness of time. also, "the slavocrats." as well as several 
million ])e(>]>le involved in the same society and (iestiny, did take 
"due notice" of "the parallel with the basest criminals," so highly 
apjtroved l)v the sixty-eiglit members of Congress from the North, 
and did -act accordingly." In legal ])arlance, the}* "acknowledged 
service," and at the proi)er time put in. what history will feel con- 
strained to term, a refreshingl}' proper appearance. When every 
scandal and offense to the South took the offensive against l>er — 
the .Moi'rill tariff, colossal jobbery, which has since spanned a con- 



36 

tinent; defiance of contract, whicb has since rained national banks 
and paper money, pledged determination to raze the foundations 
of the South and to topple the whole edifice — it was settled that 
she could be brought to terms by com])lete exhaustion and defeat 
alone. When superior numbers rose against lier. and "false to 
freedom, sought to quell the free," the opportunity was given and 
seized to prove the honesty of our own convictions. The mer- 
chant closed his ledger; tiie clerk sprang over his desk; the 
student threw down his lexicon and shouldered a musket; the 
planter rode l^is best hoi'se into the field; the churches melted 
their bells into guns, and women their jewels into the treasury. 
A storm of indignation swept over the land, in the tension and 
revolt of which all the forces of society Avere bent like a boAV 
and recoiled like the bolt. I'urer devotion to a cause never was 
beheld. 

It has been said men make the laws and women make the morals. 
"Laws," says Milton, --are masculine births." It is the prerogative 
of man, seldom as it is availed of, to clothe himself in their majesty, 
and on this earth to be their representative; but the history of 
moi-als is woman's history — a deeply-impoi'tant, fact if we con- 
sider another a])horism : "iyren make laws, but we live b}^ custom." 
You recall the sally of FIctclier of Sjvltoun: "I care not who 
makes the laws of a ])Cople, so I make their songs." The song is 
that Avhich floats most directly from the heart of a people, ami 
most directly floats bac-lc to it again. It is the expression of that 
which is anterior to all laws: the moral sense which makes them, 
and on which the}^ must operate. It is the ])ower behind the 
throne, great ci" than the throne, which makes the (^)ueen of Song 
of sucli significance. You lay a hand on the jmlse of a ])eople 
when you touch and are touched by her's. In no wise, thei-efoi-e, 
can it be oiiiitte<l as a most literal fact, that in the shar[> discrimi- 
nation of those times and fates, when the customary pilots of 
society, the ]iriest, the poet, the newspapei- editor, were so largely 
meig'cd ill t he seciilai' arm : when the minister of the gospel fought 
through all grades, tViuii j^rivate in the ranks up to Lieutenant- 
Gcneral Commanding; when the ]K)et largely had his '• head(|uar- 
tcrs in the saddle; ' when the editor "associated himself with the 
stalf," and there was noltod}- left to make either the laws or songs 
of a people in the terrible business of waging their wars: the 



37 

toei^in of" war sai<l to woman hero i)i the conservative South, '-the 
inoro than Pa])ai throne of ])ulilie o])iriioii, be that your throne, and 
bo your proper mercy and your proper diy-nity your noblest 
8C0])tre." The subtler impulses of the war fell into her hands, as 
well as its u-entler ministrations. She was the voice of its heart 
and the inter])rotor of its passion. She staunched the wound and 
smoothed the ])illow. She was the minister to the sick and the 
angel to the dyini;'. She wove the banner and device winch 
floated at the head of every column. Slie uirded on the harness 
for tlie tiij;ht. trivinL!; most ]iroudly where she loved most dearly. 
I'nmitred and uidieneticed. she rose the true Pontitl'of a ( "ommon- 
wealth. 

Tn this form \ have t]ioui;-ht it woi'th while to review the con- 
victions actuatino- us in a contest which sealed tlieir sincerity. 
That, at least, can never more be questioned: for, thouii-h when 
the war broke out, the doctrine of our assailants was. that some 
two lunidred and fifty thousand slaveholdei's nuiintaincd such a 
rei<i;n of teri'or at the South, that the remaining!; ])opulation Avere 
driven into resistance, wherefore a T'nited States army was neces- 
sary in their midst to endow ihcm wilh f ree s]ieech ; when the 
war ended, and this same po])ulation was not only free to express 
devotion to the T'uion, Init u-reatly rewar<led for doinsji; so, and 
punished for not doint;- so, the leiiMslation of a Xortliern Congress 
iissumed that tlieir devotion to their cause was such as no mis 
fortune could imj)aiv ; that not a man of them cotdd be trusted, and 
thai a reign of terror and proscription, undeniable this time, must 
be i>ut over them in conse<[Uence ! The strength to do and suffer 
greatly, the strength of Ironsides, can only be had of men -'know- 
ing what they fight for and loving what they know." To embody 
the just sym])athies of men, this it is to lie a repuldic. To present 
those sympathies and that justice in their truest form, this is the 
art of government. .V government rests on intelligence, when 
intelligence welcomes it as intrinsically noble and beneficent. 
More absolutely than any king the citizens of such a State can 
say: "The State, it is ourselves, our sword, our helmet, our breast- 
j)late. our breast ; the nol)leness we ourselves have made and are 
made l)y.'" The country which is loved is the country which is 
Jovelv. 



38 

No more compendious statement of the war has lieeii given than 
that of Lord John Eusselh "The Xorth is tighling for empire, the 
South for independence." To this may be added another, by our 
President Oavis. in the summer of 1864. •• We are not lighting for 
slavery — we are lighting for independence." We were not sap- 
ping, but supporting the princi]iles of social order: lighting for no 
metaphysical, fighting for practical rights. The men of 'Tt). when 
they spoke of the right of revolution, did not mean that it was a 
wrong, but that it was a right. The men of '87 did not mean to 
make bond and dependent the States which were ••and oi' a right 
ought to be free and indepen^lent." They did not organize a sys- 
tem of constitutional warfare between the States, but its constitu- 
tional prohibition — a government under law and Constitution: not 
over it. "outside the Constitution. •' The men of 18(>1 said. "Better 
to have been subjugated by the arms of Great Britain than by our 
own Federal com])act."' The]"»resent Executive of the United States, 
on a late tour through the country, several times quoted (if the 
news]>apers quote him rightly), as coming from Andrew Jackson, 
the woi-ds: ••The Fnion.it must and shall be ]nvserved."' But 
Jackson never made that speech. What he did say was. "The 
Federal T^nion. it must be preserved.' Ours was the Federal army. 
In anv correct use of terms. (Uir assaihtnt Avas the ant i- Federal 
army, llenry Clay in 18oti. speaking of the Abolitionists, asked: 
"Is their ]itir})ose to appeal to our understandings and actuate our 
humanitv? And do they ex])ect to accom])lish that purpt^se by 
holding us up to the scorn and contempt and detestation of the 
free States and llie whole civilized world? * * * The Aboli- 
tionists, let me sui)iH)se. succeed in their present aim of uniting the 
inhabitants of the free States as one num against the inhal>itant^ 
of the shive States. Union on the one side will beget union on the 
other, and tins process of reciprocal consolidation will be attended 
with all the violent prejudices, embittered i)assions. and im]dacable 
animosities which ever degraded human nature. A virtual disso- 
lution will have taken ])lat-e. while the forms of its existence- 
remain.'' This was a more statesmanly prediction than any which 
has been shown to me of Mr. AVendell riiillips or any of his sciiool 
of prophets. In 18()1 the causes enunu'vated by Clay had produced 
the anticipatcfl results. The Constitution was then -marching 
on"' to be operated "outside the Constitution," hors la loi, as 



39 

Kolicsjiierre would say; and since that time, as we i'Cnow, has l)een 
phuited detinilively '"on the side of freedom" — of freedom to be 
viohited with im|mnity! This was not the Union to which we 
acl<nowledi;-ed either otili^ation or affection — the farce and fraud 
ot' u Tnion. ^Ve niay ri<;-htf'ully take to ourselves the words which 
were useil iiy the first Dissenters in Virginia, that the}" were not 
dissenters from the original constitution of the church, bnt rather 
dissented from those who had fm-suken it. Old Wintliro]t was 
right. There is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty which is the 
{ii-o[)er eml and oltject of authority: for this lil)erty, yovi are to 
stand with llir ha/.ard of your very lives, and whatsoever crosses 
it is not autlitirily. I>ut some distem]>er thereof 



IV. 



A ilesitaii'ing amlience must long since have decidccl that this 
address is as slow in getting into the Wilderness as the children of 
Israel weiv in getting out of one. But wildernesses abound in this 
world in oi'der that faith may more abound. Sooner or later they 
are arrived at by almost every ])ath— that of this association being 
no exception — which, indeed, least of all was to be expected. It 
has seemed to me that the illustration of the foregoing premises 
might best be found, not in the day of elation which closed at CJet- 
tysburg: but at the |)oint of depression, exhaustion, and '-'wearing 
out by attrition '■ — tiie cam|)aign of IStJl. Since Septemlter 22d, 
IsilL'. the Tnited States, in tiie language of Mr. AVendell Phillips, 
•had turned its face Zionward "— that is to say. President Lincoln, 
who one or two days earlier iiad pronounced a proclamation of 
emancijiation to Ik' 'the Pope's bull against tlu' comet;" on the 
day above mentioned let fly at the comet in the papal and bovine 
manner he himself described, with results which fully justified his 
iirst impressions. 

We take up our line of march on tlie banks of the Rapidan. In 
the name of the river, as in the names Xorthanna, Southanna, 
Kivanna. Fluvanna, we have jiresi-rved once more the kindly-atfec- 
tioiied zeal which \'irginians so long retained for the courtly and 
sparkling reign of Anne, making the surlaee of our soil the liaik 
of an old tree in which the same initials perpetually recur. 



40 

The country about the border lino between Orange and Spot- 
sylvania, extending back from the JJapi<lan, is a dismal region of 
barrens covering rich veins of oi-e ; on the Spotsylvania side more 
especially of iron, on the other of gold — a fact which has wi-itten 
itself upon the localities and creeks of the neighl)Oi'hood, one of 
which, Mine Ilun, gives the name to the battle which closed the 
l^revious"" campaign. The origin of tlu' name goes back to the first 
settlement of the country. When (he Knights of the Golden 
Hoi'se Shoe set out on their tramontane ride in 1710, to scale the 
Apalachians and (b-iidc his Majesty's health on the summit of 
Mount George (sic ju cat iransccndere J^Jontes). the jouriml of their 
expedition chronicled the following: "At half-y)ast two we got the 
horses; at three we mounted, and at hall' an hour after four we 
came w\\ with our baggage, at a small river three miles on the wa}', 
Avhicli \\H' call Mini! nivei", l)ccause thei'e was an a])pearance of a 
siher mine b^• it." Jn a good sense it came to pass aiterwards 
that what glittered was not silver. 

The country is one of gold, but of melancdioly. foi-bidding ex- 
terior. Jt is as if it said: ■■ .^^y severity is seeming, my liouuty is 
I'eal. I hold one of the ]»ri/.es of life, therefore not to be turned 
Uj) in the first furrow or the first week" ; the rewai'd of discrimina- 
tion, jH'i'sisteiicy, wise, discriminating nu-thod; one of the great 
])rizes of life, which cannot be bought simply, but must be wrought 
withal. 1 cari-y my fi'owns on my bi-ow, my bi>ams in my bi-east." 
It is a c(»uiiti-y of ii'oii and gold, as it wci-e, of gold, and the iron to 
defend the gold; a Ibuntain of wealth, and the mailed hand needful 
to assui'c it; a counti-y of untamed forest and cop])ice, pi'csenting 
an aspect of savagery unchanged from the time when the savage 
was its loi'il. Endless successions of Jungle have come and gone, 
each in turn rotting at the base of anothei- like unto itself; as 
savage hoi'des, as wiM beasts come and go; their whole ))ast the 
dust undei- their feet. So here the ibiiage of each recuriMiig spring- 
rises out of tlu' nuist of all the autumns packivl about the roots — 
a savage ])ast. which fades as the leal, and is llieii nu)st useful 
when turned into manure. All the ages of the past lie there, 
])ressed into a few handfuls of inorganic mould, feeding the 
labyi-inth of to-day. lie who wishes to see a district in the heart 
of the oldest of Amei'ican comnu)nwcalths which looks as it did 
when the white man first landed on our shores, will iind it hero. 



41 

''So thou art I^rasse \\ilboii(, l)ut Cloldc witliin.'' written un<k'r the 
portrait ol' ("a])taiu .lolin Sinitli. inij^ht be written over this portion 
of the- State he so oToatly helped to fouii(L The hist time I saw 
it. h)okiiio; hiiciv iVom a i-isc in the road, the mellow gush of a per- 
fect Oetolier Sahhath was tlirowini;- its (U'ej), delicate farewell, at 
once the noblest and the tenderest of the year, over the changing 
autumn leaf; where one might say ti perpetual Sabl)ath reigned, 
AveiH- rest mere idlensss. and not '-the titling oi' self to its s])here;" 
were it not '-loving and serving the highest and best;" but as it 
was, one might have said tliat the rest of tlic Lord poured a ray 
from his halo aroun<l ihi' lair of his adversaiy, nndving the wrath 
of the Wilderness to jiraise ITini : so that, for the instant, one 
might see, as in creation Aveelc. that all is good. The tall, gaunt 
pin*.'s. and cluin])s of ]»ines, i-isiiig alternately in light an<l shadow, 
waved aloft like green peaks and islands in a I'olling sea, fai' as the 
eye could stretch, of autumn glory. 

It must ever be a satisfaction to i-enienilicr tliat the same Keiny, 
Earl of Southampton, who with one hand lifted u]) in the Kast the 
"Glorious ]\Iorning" of a Shakspeai-e's Sun, with the othci- planted 
in his ''golden face" the tops and meado^ys of Virginia, and ])Oured 
over both the age of Klizabeth. JEe was a great Henry who was 
"the tenth muse" to tliose eternal luiinbers and these pathless 
Avilds: architect of those stirring fortunes, which in KHIT i)lante<l 
the Cross al tliefoot of the tails of .lames river. One cannot read 
now without emotion the verses of the poet Drayton, written at 
the t iiiie (if emliarkalion : 

You bravo, lioroic iniiids, 
AVorlhy your cmmtry's name, 

Tliat luuKir still ]iur.sue, 
"Wliilst loiterinu; liinds 
Lurk here at home witli sliamo. 
Go ami suIkIuc. 



And cheerfully at sea, 
Success you still entice, 

To get the pearl and gold, 
And ours to hold 
Virginia, 
Earllr.s only paradise. 



42 

And in regions far, 
Such heroes bring ye forth, 

As those from whom we came, 
And phint our name 
Under that star, 
Not known unto our North. 

And as there plenty grows 
Of hiurel everywhere, 

Apollo's sacred tree, 
You it may sec, 
A poet's brows 
To crown, that may sing there. 

J5ut it is the leaf of a century later which I wish to lujld up for 
a moment, because there happens to be on it an impression ol' the 
scenery upon which we are immediately to enter. One of the 
■ mci-riest of the narratives of Colonel William l^yrd relates certain 
jaurneys of the Sovereiy;n of Westover, called by him "A progress 
to the Mines," wbich tinall}^ drew rein at '-Colonel Spotswood's 
enchanted castle," on one side of a (iermanna street, opposite "a 
Baker's dozen of ruinous Tenements,'' where "so man}' German 
Families bad dwelt some years a,i;-o." Only >rrs. Spotswood was at 
home, "who received her old ac(inaintance with many a gracious 
smile." "I was carried,'" he writes, "into a i-oom elegantly set off 
Avith Pier-Glasses. * * * A lirace of tame deer ran familiarly 
about the house, and one of ihem came to stare at me as a stranger. 
But, unluckily, s])ying his own tigure in the glass, he made a spring 
ovei- the Tea-Table that stood under it and shattered the glass to 
pieces, and. falling l»ack u|)()ii the tea-tal)le, made a lei-rifle Fracas 
among the china. * * .But it was worth all the Damage to show 
tbe moderation and good humor with wliicli she l>ore this disaster. 
In the evrning the noble Colonel came home from his mines, and 
Mrs. Spotswood's sister, Miss Theky, who had been to meet him 
en cavalier:' The ne.Kt day the visitor was instructed in the mys- 
tery ol'mak'ing iron, wherein Spotswood had le<l the way. and was 
the Tubal Cain of \'irginia, being the lirst in North America to 
erect a Furnace. lEowever. the Furnace was still great part of the 
time, and Spotswood said "he was i-ightly served for committing 
his atVairs to a nuithcmatician, whose tiioughts were always among 
the stars."' Later in the day there was shown a marble Ibuntain, 



43 

"where Miss Theky often sut and bewuyled lier virginity" — not 
ineffectually, since she left descendants. '"At night we drank |»i'os- 
perity to all the Colonel'.s Projects in a Bowl of l^ack Punch, and 
then retired to our devotions." The next night the two Barons 
"quitted the threadhare suhject of iron, and changed the scene to 
Politics." S])otswood said the ministry had receded from their 
di'iiiaiid upon New England to raise a standing salary for all suc- 
ceeding Governors, for fear some curious members of the House of 
Commons should enquire how the money was disposed of that had 
been raised in the otlu-r .ViiuTicaii colonies for the Sujiport of their 
Governors. * * * JIc said fui t her. (haf if t he Asscuilily iu New 
England wonld stand Plutf. he did not see how they could be forced 
to raise ]\[oney against their will. -■- '■'• * * Then the Colonel 
read me a lecture upon Tar," i^'c. 

Here was a man who a year later, making a visit to his planta- 
tion, laid off a tract at the Point of Appomattox to be called* 
Petersburg, and another at Shoccoe's to be called bMchmond, sup- 
])ing with another who had erected the first furnace in America; 
led the first troo]>s over the mountains; who ])romoted l^enjamin 
Franklin to be postmaster of J'eiinsylvauia ; a veteran oi' Blenheim, 
wounded in the breast there, and atterwards dying on his way to 
take command in the army against Carthagena. Cineas, had he 
ste]»|)i'd in to s|)eiid the evening, would have bei'u enibai'i'assed (o 
tin<l Tulial Cain an<l Tri]»tolemus under the same roof The whole 
logic of the devolution was considei-ed hy (hat host and guest, as 
they sat in the September mildness with their feet undei' the 
mahogany, to teach us what a thing it is condcre gentcDi. 

It is a simple and a gi'and old day which has come down to us 
tVoin those fouinlers of common wealths, the l<nightliest of that 
!<niuht 1\- band 

" AVlio rode with Spotswood round the land, 
And rode with Italcigh round the soa.s ;" 

when the jilanier had his own ca|)ital. his own liirmingham, liis 
own standing army, his own na\igable river, and shipjyed his 
toliacco at his own doors; when, alter the union of iMigland and 
Scotlanil. the escutcheon of the Colony was quarlerecl with the 
arms of Mnglaml. France, and Ireland, crested by a maiden queen, 
with the motto. ■' Eu did \'ir<jinia qudrtom" (before the union (jui7l- 



44 

torn); when the Atlantic ocean was the Virginia sea in Capt. Smith's 
geography, and so exposed in the highly ornamented map which 
has come down i'rom him. with a group of naked savages on one 
side, and, properly enough, '■•Honi soit qui mal y pen.se" on the othqr. 

One other sentence from this old past, and I am done. "Three 
miles farther," writes Colonel Byrd of his journey forward, "we 
came to the Germanna road, where I quitted the chair and con- 
tinued my journey on horseback. I rode eight miles together 
over a stony road, and had on cither side continual poisoned Fields, 
with nothing but Saplings growing on them." Jlere in 1732 is the 
description which serves us for to-day. The Lord of Westover is 
gone. His l)roa(l empire is gone. All that remains of the most 
accomplished hand and courtly mind on this side of the Atlantic 
are these ])aintings of his pen, around which forever wantons the 
the mei-ry laughter of a witty li]), giving us the best, if not the 
only picture of the time and of himself who almost was the time. 
Triptolemus and his gay steeds, with the revering slaves who held 
the stirrup for their lord, have scudded to tar-otf lands; ai'e clean 
gone and scattered hei'e as the autumn leaf they strode home in. 
Tubal ( 'ain is gone. The (iolden Ilorse-Shoer backed the pale 
horse in .season, and took his farewell ride doubtless in the old 
knightly fashion. Marliiorough's veteran has fought his last tight, 
and, faithful son of the church, we will hope received his death 
wound, too, in tlu' breast. Spotswood's ''enchanted castle." the 
"gracious smile" which made it so, the tame deer and the ])ier- 
glass through which 'they darted panic stricken, as wiser animals 
have l»een before and since by a "counterfeit presentment," are 
nu'ltcd into air. The (ierman colony is gone. Their ruinoua 
tenements have ceased even to be ruinous. The marble fountain 
and its virginal wail are gone, or at most only the wail is left. 
The ban(|uets are gone. Xo tiscul Motlett, with his monitory bell- 
punch, had been conceived in 1732. and "the Bowd of Hack Punch" 
has left not a rack behind. But those "poisoned Fields" remain. 
They are the baltlc-tields of the AVilderiu'SS, where Spotswood's 
descendant massed again the iron of a people, leading another kind 
of Ilorse-Shoe Iv nights, "red-wat shod." 

Through ibis country inm two priiici])al ntads, known as the 
Orange and Fredericksburg turnpike (or more commonly Old Pike), 
and south of this the Orange and Fredericksburg plank-road. 



45 

'iMicse two roads, aliout the ])oiiit of the l)attlc-fiel(l, mm ncai'ly 
]iai'alK'l. at a ilisiaiicc varvini^ from two miles and a lialf to two 
miles and a (|uai'tc'r. Imt l»eyond that point eonverge vevv ra])idly, 
and Torm a jnnetion at the old Wilderness Chnreh, some two miles 
Ihrther on. South of the plank-road, and diverii;ing from it, where 
the line of battle ran on the (ith of May. some three-quarters of a 
niilf, is the road-hed of the then unfinished Orange and Fredcrieks- 
hnrg railroad. Crossing the two established highways, and cross- 
ing eaeh other so as to make an X. are the (Jermanna ])lank-road 
and the liroek road, the former running from (iermanna Ford in a 
southeasterly direetion. and eonstituting, in connection with the 
latter, the direct road to Ivichmon'd from (termanna Ford. The 
Catharpin road intersects the "Brock road about eight miles south 
of th^^ plank-road, at Todd's Tavern, and connects willi the I'oad 
from Fly's Ford at Aldrich, two miles southeast from ("haucellors- 
viUe. 

Confederate resistance in the field meant, from the lieginning. a 
general's strategy and an army's patience equalizing unequal num- 
bers and resources. It meant the show of troo])s at many ])oints, 
their rapid concentration at a few. even at the expense of the 
ex|tosure of the rest. It meant forced marches, meagre e(|ulpment. 
deticient food and forage. It meant this the first yeai' of the war. 
It mi'aut it more than ever in the last. The greatest and Itest 
a]>])ointed army of modern times, the army which marched to 
Moscow, moving in mi<lsummer thi-ough the friendly country of 
iiithuania from the Xiemen to the I)wina. a distance of some two 
liundred and fitly miles, in a time which made the average rate of 
travrl less than twelve miles a day. lost ten thousand horses and 
nearly one humlred thousand men; left a hundred and fifty guns 
and live hundred caissons at Wilna. and twenty-five thousand sick 
and living in the hospitals and vilages of Lithuania. These losses, 
the bulletin says, arose from "the uncertainty, the (h'stresses, the 
marches ami counti'rmarches of the troops, their fatigues and suf- 
fei-ances.' The want of dry fodder for the horses, and the neces- 
sity of su])]iorting them upon the gret'U ci'O]) which was growing 
in the fields, mowed them down in such hea])S. Just sucli marches 
and eounternuirches. fatigues, and sufferings of the troops, was the 
price of all Confederate achievement. Campaigns in the A'alley, 
battles ai'ound Richmond, sieges of Petersburg, all depended upon 



46 

this. On the eve of his long wrestle with Grant, Lee had to close 
with forces not only worn and torn l)y three bloody years, but 
now pinched hy fiuuinc in the ti'ack ol' arinies. a portion of whose 
strategy was, as Sheridan's correspondent l)Oasted of that marau- 
der's operations in the Yalley, "so to desolate, that a crow flying 
over would have to carry his own rations." 

Three j^ears of such warfare had not told exclusively on one side. 
Immigration, it is true, did much to relieve recruiting in the North. 
At the same time tiic working classes Avere hecoming dissatislicd, 
and dimly perceived that the cost of the struggle fell on them in 
the end, since they who paid it recovered it in the prices charged 
on the necessaries of life. They felt that the value of mouc}' had 
fallen more than wages had risen. The financier who had matured 
the "Moi'i'ill TarittV inijjosinga duty of thirty-three per cent, upon 
all articles of Eur()])ean manufacture, in May, 18G4, proposed to 
raise the same to sixty-six per cent., in order to double the duties. 
Chase had hitherto succeeded in carrying on an expensive war, as 
it seemed, without taxalicm. lie had succeeded in manipulating 
trade into the speculation which thrives upon war. J^y building 
u}) a war business upon and by reason of the disorganization of all 
other business, he had created a ])ublic policy which owed its suc- 
cess to privati' demoralization. The few taxes he had laid, in the 
main had not been paid. TFis excise duties did not prove a suc- 
cess. Jtis income-tax was fai- from realizing ex])eetations. Jlis 
main slay was ])aper money — a sword which was sure to pierce the 
hand which leaned on it. 'J'ruly it will be good fortune if they 
who drew that sword do not perish by it. At length he had 
announced that five hundred million dollars a year, which he 
deemed a trifle, must be I'aised fr<jm the pockets of the peoj)le. 
"If," he said, ''the war were closed in 18G5. the whole debt now 
and to lie incun-ed would be paid otf in ten years. Let us luive 
loans and taxes and incivase the ])ayof the soldiers. With the 
dash of a genei-al who never fails, we must anticipate crushing 
results to the enemy: ami with military success wc shall be vic- 
torious over all ills." Here was a Treasurer as spendthrift of 
money as the Lieutcnant-General was of men. With such fiscal 
ability in the (Jabinet and (Ji-ant's "attrition" in the field the 
cause of the South was not quite hopeless. Hy the husbandry of 
her own men and means she mifrht still hold out. 



47 

In 1864 six per cent, gold-bearing bonds brought only fiftj' per 
cent, in gold. " We will put forth one more effort," said Thaddeus 
Stevens, "to lift our sinking credit by the hair of its head from the 
sea of l»anl<ru])lcy." 

At the opening of this campaign the Southern prospect was 
sufficiently cheering to men accustomed to peril. The two great 
armies of attack' were opposed in the East and the West by armies 
of defence, both determined to dispute, and one not unable to 
become an army of offence and even of invasion. In Louisiana, 
on the 8th of Api-il. TKud<s had been defeated and stampeded at 
Mansfield by General Taylor. There followed a second encounter 
between the same Generals on the 0th, wherein the Northern 
papers claimed a victor)', which, they saiil, "was marred by an 
order from Banks to retreat." This order, if it was given, was so 
excessively complied wilh as to result in a tlighl in which the 
wounded were atiandoned. About the same time Cieneral Forrest 
made repeated and successful attacks upon the posts of the enemy 
on the Mississippi. Wilh no ordinary feeling, I make this jiassing 
allusion to one who can never hear it. I'o-night resolutions are 
read to you in commemoration of his life and servicers. The bold 
rider is down; the swift sabre is (|uenched. The grey uniform 
which in life he covered with honor now covers the trooper in his 
grave also with honor. Ue lies, as it were, wrapt in his own valor. 
In the east, General Iloke, who ha<l been delache<i from (Jenci-al 
Lee's army for the purpose, had caijlured the town of Plyn\oulli 
in North Carolina, and a Confederate ram had sunk tliree iron- 
clads in Roanoke Sound. In addition, a new line of supplies had 
})cen opened Just as all the old ones were closing. The New 
Orleans custom-house drove a tratlic in ••permits,"' under which 
goods were conveyed, at a cost of about one-third the invoice of 
the goods, into the Confederate lines. Ordinarily the worst charge 
vou can bring against an officer of government is to say that he 
cooperates with those who mak'e money by jobbing in tlie public 
funds. In a most pernicious way he gives '"'aid and comfort to the 
enemy." But this New Orleans lousiness heaped coals of tire on 
his lieail with the face Avhich "good men wear who have done a 
virtuous action." 

But though such gleams of advantage — to longing minds, which 
clutched at gleams as drowning men at straws — did brighten the 



48 

sky, the sky was not a bright one. Dr. ^rahan, in his History of 
the War. states that ■'according to official recoixls moi*c than t\vo 
million six hundred tliousand men entered the Union armies during 
the progress of the war," and that ''upwards of one million men 
were mustered out of service at the close of the war." Consider- 
ing the fact that "the numlier of tiie white population of the eleven 
States which entered into the Ivebellion was, according to the cen- 
siis. less than three million males,'" his com])utation is that, out of 
such a population, not more than six hundred thousand men coidd 
have been drawn from lirst to last, and that such a population 
could not have equipped and kept in the field an eflf'ective Ibrce of 
more than two hundred thousand; nor does he forget that it was 
only in the early part of the war that men or provisions could be 
counted on from Tennessee and Ai'kansas; and not even then from 
West \'irginia. "Undeniably," he says, "the Union annies out- 
numbered those of the Confederacy, in all cases as two, commonly 
as three, and during the entire pei'iod that General Grant was our 
Commandei'-in-Chief, as four to one." The report ol Secretary Stan- 
ton siiows that on May 1st, 180-4, the aggregate military force of 
all arms in the service of the United States numberod nine hun- 
dred and seventy tliousand seven hundred and ten men, and that 
on May 1, 1801, there was an available foree present for duty of 
six hundred and sixty-two thousand three hundretl and forty-rive, 
and that of these, tlicj-e were on that(hiy under Grant one hundred 
and forty-one tliousand one hundred and sixty othcors and men; 
in the neighl'oring departments of Washington, Vii-ginia, Xorth 
Cai'oHna, AVest Virginia, and the middle department at Baltimore, 
an additional ibrce of 137,072 men. which Grant could draw upon 
for his ojjerations in Virginia. In the meantime the draft was 
enforced, volunteering stimulated !)}'• high bounties, and in the 
Xorthwest hundred days' troops ordered out to relieve the troops 
on garrison and local duty and send them to the front. Orders 
were given for the movement of all the annies not later than the 
fourth of May. Grant's thous;uuls slnu-k their tents on the night 
of the third. 

Lee's letters on the threshold of this eainpaign are the letters of 
one in straits. ()ii the 8th of March we tind him writing to Long- 
street, then in blast Tennessee, that it is simply impossible for him 
to recruit the command of the latter without stripping all others; 



49 

and if horses could be obtained I'or Ijongstrcct, where is forage to 
come from? There is . none to l)e had nearer than Georgia. It 
cannot be furnished by the railroa(h Xo, the best thing were for 
Ijongstreet and Johnston to nialce a combined movement into 
Mi(hlle Tennessee, where forage and ])rovisions can be had, cut the 
ai'mies at Chattanooga and l\noxviIle in two, draw tlicm from 
these points, and strilce at tlieni m succession as opportunity offers. 
Again and again Lee returns to tliis. 

Hut if ibis is not practicable, then every preparation should be 
made to meet the appproaching storm which will burst upon Vir- 
ginia. Accumulate supplies at iiichniond, oi- at points convenient, 
as last as jiossible. Notify Beauregard of the transfer of troops 
trom Charleston and Fortress Monroe. We shall have to glean 
ti'oops trom ever}' ([uarter. All pleasure travel (think of it at such 
a time) should cease: everything l)e devoted to necessary wants. 
IJeinforcc Johnston from Polk, Mobile, and Eeaurcgard. Tell 
liongstreet to come to mc; throw his corps rapidly into the Valley, 
to counteract any movement of the enemy in tliat quarter, and be 
where he can unite with me, or I with him, as circumstances 
require. ''Forward IFoke's command.'' be writes Pickett, "the 
enemy will advance as soon as the roads will permit.'' Tmboden 
and Breckinridge, in the A^illey, must be ]M'e])ared to cross the 
Blue Pidge at a moment's notice. 

We know how Breckinridge did afterwards, like the young and 
old lion, sweep the valley, and then bound over the mountains, to 
the side of Jjce, his true place. On April 12th Lee writes to the 
Pi'esident: ''\My anxiety on the subject of ])rovisions is so great 
that T cannot rafrain from expivssing it to your Fxcellenc}'." On 
the ITith he would draw Longstrcet and Pickett to him, and "move 
right against the enemy on tlie lvai)pahannock. * * * But to 
make this move T must have jn-ovisions and forage. T am not yet 
able to call lo me the cavalry or artillery." On the 22d Long- 
street has reached Cobham from Fast Tennessee. On the 29th he 
writes: ••! shall lie too weak to ojipose Meade's ami}' without 
jloke's and Johnston's brigades." On the 30th scouts report that 
Meade's pontoon trains have advanced south of the Pappahannock. 
One other little sentence has a touch of pathos in the sheer sim- 
]»li(ity with which it joins events. "The grass is springing now," 
Lee wrote on the 2Sth of April, '-and I am di-awing the cavalry 
and artillerv near to me." 



50 

In this correspondence, thus hastily glanced at, is given the 
outline of an army's urgency; the wide compass of its Avatch at 
the instant the enemy had couched his spear; the need to decide 
quickly and surely ujjon ditlerent lines of operations and prohabili- 
ties of attack; to concentrate in an instant upon the decisive 
points of a theatre of war; to fall with the whole weight of a 
smaller army ujjon fractions of a larger one wherever they were 
exposed, which, to he done with the destructiveness of lightning, 
had to he done with the rajudity as well. A good general will 
always say to his troops, as Napoleon did: •■ I would rather gain 
victory at the ex])ense of your legs than at the price of your 
blood." Here was an army, whose ti'ans])oi-tation alarmingly 
prognosticated the spavined state, which had to make up in velocity 
what it wanted in weight. 

Horace Walpole tells one of his funu}- stories of a General of the 
Duke of Marlborough, at a dinner with the Lord ^fayor. An imposing, 
keenly-speculative alderman, who sat next to the General, addressed 
him with '-Sir, yours must be a very laborious profession." "O, 
no." replied the General, '"we tight about four hours in the morn- 
inir, and two or three after dinner, and then we have all the rest 
of the day to ourselves." But this ai»surdity came near to being 
the fact of a tight now approaching, ushered in in May and ushered 
out in April following. Our season of rest, our long hybernation 
was over, leaving us anything luit replenished. General Heth 
has stated, in a late communication to the Philadelphia Weekly 
Times, that at this period (in 1804). "the ration of a general offi- 
cer was double that of a private, and so meagre was that double 
supply, that frequently to appease my hunger I robbed my horse. 
***** What must have been the condition of the 
private ?■■ — a problem vastly ]ileasanter to pr()j)ound now than to 
solve then. 

But on the 28th of A])ril the grass was springing. Nature was 
recruiting. iShe too must be ])ressed into the ranks. Her ways of 
pleasantness and jiaths of peace, sweet as ever, were announcing 
then, that the seed-corn of a peo})le was ri])e for the harvest of 
death, where men were to fail like grain. Her robe of increase 
was to l»e our martial cloak. In that lair springtime man seemed 
to say to nature: •Thou must increase, but I must decrease; a 
material world become more and more in this new era, the higher 
and nobler less and less." The notes and shapes ^of spring had 



51 

come ai^ain; tho hirds were blitho as ever in the bi-anehes; the 
skies were beiulinii; witli old-time kindness overhead ; the Idue hills 
of Yir!j;inia, to the slopes of which her army sti'ctched, stood in 
their rampart stroni^ and beautiful as ever. Spring-, fresh-tinted, 
was glittering once more where, so tragically, all that glittered 
was not gold. Nature Avas preaching peace and peaceful increase 
on the Eapidan. as elsewhere, when there was no peace there in 
the throat of war. And so General Lee drew the cavaliy and 
artilleiw near to him. since the grass was sj^ringing. on the 28th of 
April. ' 

Mr. Swinton has stated — no doubt with his habitual fidelity to 
the means of infoi-mation in his reach — that ''Jjee's army, at this 
time, numbered 52,02(1 men of all arms" — a statement derived 
from the monthly returns of the Army of Northern A'ii-ginia. now 
in the Archive Office at Washington. General Early is satisfied 
that General Lee's army did not exceed 50,(100 effective men of all 
arms. General Lee has himself stated (page 208 of Personal 
l^eminisccnces) that the number of cflFective men under his com- 
mand on May 4th, 1804, of all arms, was between forty-five and 
fifty thousand. His right, under Ewell. extended to the mouth of 
Mine Run; the left, under Hill, to Liberty Mills. Two divisions 
of Longstreet were encamped in the rear near Gordonsville. The 
othei- division, under Pick-ett. which had not accompanied the 
corps commander to the West, had been and continued to be 
retained near Pichmond. The brigade of Hoke was absent. That 
of IJ. h. .iobnston arrived just in time to take part in the tight of 
the second day. 

This army had now to deal with a General who proposed to meet 
the danger of defeat in detail l>y the altogether simjjle ex])edient of 
having more troops everywhere than the Confederates had any- 
where, (a ])laii so simjile, that the moment a mjin of genius men- 
tioned it, every other must have felt mortified at not having 
thought of it himself.) and whose generalshiji was, in his own 
sober second thought, composed after the event, ''to hammer con- 
tinuously against the armed force of the enemy and his irsources. 
until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing 
lett to him but an equal submission," ttc. Xot a bad way, perhaps 
the only way. to coiupier freemen, this of "wearing them out by 
attrition." this of dashing superior numbers in wave after wave 
upon freedom"s living wall, until the last foe has been slain, and 



52 

the dashing troops can hear no sound "save their own dashings." 
If in no other way it can he done, then in tliis one way it must be 
done, until there be ''nothing left to him." Grant certainly was 
of this o])inion, for when his lieutenant suggested to him that ho 
might su]>]^lement the programme with a little manoeuvring, he 
replied, 'I nevei- mameuvre." 

Credit must be given Grant for his turn for keeping his own 
counsel. He did not succeed in preventing his plans from cross- 
ing to General Lee the moment they were known (Ictinilely to 
hiinHclf, Init he did succeed, as none of his predecessors had done, 
in kee])ing them from his own army correspondents. It was 
not until long alter this that Wendell I'hillips sai<l of him: "As 
in the case of another aninud. we took him for a lion until we 
heard his voice." A valuable faculty this of reticence. He who 
is incapable of this is incapable of everything. ITo who has it, 
though he has nothing else, is capable of something. One of 
the very ablest things Grant ever did was for some years to lock 
his jaws over his tongue. The frothy effervescence which has 
no other use lor the events of life than to gossip of them, igno- 
rant how to ])rofit by them, having no faith in the sway of a 
])()tency which has not been well advei'tised and so pi'operly ap])re- 
ciated ; to which, therefore, nothing in the breast is loo deep, 
nothing too sacred lor publication, l)ut the whole of life to shine 
in re|)orts, ejiigrams, and good society, making commonplace 
plausilde by tropes — this, there is evcr}^ reason to believe, is a 
legion of the carjiet-knight variety, as such more formidable in 
the ])arlor than the field; save when United Slates bayonets turn 
it into the carpet-bag varit'ty, whose cuckoo-s])it has the force of 
law, the ])op|)y-cake which has exuded from incisions in a Coni- 
monwi'alth. Loquacity does not fight liattles, still less does it win 
them. 'I'o the thin va])idity of skin-depth, glibness is almost a neces- 
sity. The signs are, latterly, that Grant's silence is but skin-deep; 
which again, in his case, is no oi'dinary thick'uess. Frederick the 
(ireat said tlwU if Ids night-cap knew what was in his head, he would 
thi'ow it into tlif lirr. Grant, doubtless, had loss dilliculty in keep- 
ing his night-cap from being surprised. Many a tinu'. in the cam- 
paign "on that lino if it look" all the sninnier," which by several 
lines was conducted to the following s])ring, he must have felt 
himself in the condition of Napoleon, when he wrote to his brother 



53 

Joseph: ■• Voii will so iiiaimiio lliat (ho Spaniards will not susjK'fl 
the e(nirsc' I intend to pursue. This will not be difficult, for I liavc 
not fixed upon it myself." The whole hammering and attrition 
<trata<;-eni of massing so man^' troops that before the enemy could 
kill them all he would be killed himself with which Grant Is now 
known to have advanced from ('ul])cper Courthouse, enjoys the 
advantage of having been definitely proclaimed for the first time 
on the 22(1 of , I ul}*, 1865, when, on no other rational hypothesis, 
could Grant's series of re])ulses be wrought into a consistent 
scheme of victory. This is far the most infallible way both to 
])rejiare and to predict. In his military life (irant was a rcsei'ved, 
silent man, and deservedly owed much to that. 

With such a masterpiece of strategy to relieve his brain of, after 
some hesitation as to whether he would cross the I{a|)idan above 
Lee's left or below his right, the Ijieutenant-General decided on 
the latter, which he l»elieved would foi'ce Lee back to TJiclimond. 
As late as the 2d of May Field's division of Longstreet's corps liad 
been ordered to the north of Gordonsville, to meet an expected 
advance of the enemy by way of Lil)ert3^ Mills. (3ne may easily 
speculate as to what might have been the result to that "Grand 
Army." if it lia<l dai-ed to try a flank, which for once would' have 
separated it from gun-l)oats and naxigable rivers. But, more 
judicioush', Germanna Ford, which was some ten oi twelve miles 
'below our right, was seized on the night of the 3d of May, and 
under starlight of the 4th Grant moved for the lower fords. 

The reorganized Army of tlie Potomac consisted of the Second, 
Filth, and Sixth corps, under Hancock, "Warren, and Sedgwick, 
respectively, who reported immediately to General Meade. Bach 
corps consisted of four divisions. The cavalry, nuinberinij over 
ten thousaml sabres, had l)een placed under Sheridan. I'he Ninth 
corps, under Burnside, i-ej^orted immediately to (irant, and also 
compi'ised four divisions. 

Under the soft light of the stars, bi'ight glancing from the arms 
of a ho>t cnimtless as the stars, the Grand Army is launched into 
the night. Deep in the sands of the l\a])idan is the heav}' tramp 
of two columns, as the sands fornumlter. Ah! in that deep night 
into whi(di they march what dreams may come! into that deep 
silence what a roar burst! and those ln'aveidy fires, soft-glancing 
now in the great deep, like light-house lamps, be the last bright 
thing which many a shipwrecked man shall see! 



64 

lUirnside's orders were to hold C'lilpcpcr Courthouse I'or twenty- 
four lioui's, tuid then follow the other corps. The morning of tho 
5th found CJrant with a hundred thousand men across the liapidan, 
and nearer to Jiichmond than Lee, on the direct road from Ger- 
manna l"\)rd. 

Meade's orders for Ma}' 5th, 1804, were for Sheridan to move 
with Gregg-'s and Torbert's divisions against the Confederate 
cavalry, in the direction of Hamilton's Crossing: Wilson, with the 
Third cavalry division, to move at 5 A. yi. to Craig's Meeting- 
Itouse, on the Catharpin Uoad ; Hancock, at the same hour, to 
take up his line of march for Shady Grove Church (on the Cathar- 
pin), and extend his right towards the Fiith corps, at Parker's 
Store; Warren is simultaneously to head for this same Parker's 
Store, on the Plank Poad, and extend his right towards the Sixth 
corps at Old Wilderness Tavern. To the last-mentioned point 
Sedgwick is to move so soon as the road is clear. Shady Grove 
Chundi is two miles east of a road which connects the Catharpin 
with the Plank Poad at Parker's Store. Alter first throwing out 
Griffin's division to the west on the Turnpike to protect Sedgwick, 
who was to come tip after him on the morning of the 5th, Warren 
pointed his van in conformity to orders. But as Crawford, whoso 
division was leading, approached the Store, he met the cavalry retreat- 
ing hi'fore a hostile column which was pressing down the Plaid-c Poad. 
in the mcanlime Ci'itlin rej)orted a Confederate force on the Turn- 
])ike. This was al>out 8 o'clock in the morning. Grant and Meade 
were riding and pleasantly chatling with their staff officers, on the 
road to Old Wilderness Tavern, when a message to this effect was 
receiveil. .\n hour later Meade was saying to AVarren : ''The 
enemy have left a division to fool us here, while they concentrate 
and ])i'epare a position towai'ds the North Anna: and what 1 want 
is to j)revent those fellows from getting hack to Mine JJun." Meade 
luid been there once before '-with those i'ellows," and knew how it 
was. Orders were, therelore, given to Wari'en "to brush away or 
capture the I'orcc in his front." l)Ut Warren had stumbled on some 
other game than a fox which had lakc'n to the covei'. Lee had 
fallen back in the wrong dii-ection. He had i-i'trcated noi'th. 
Moivf)ver, he was not "fooling."' His broad-shoulderetl dead-lift 
intended the opposite. He meant a strain "from spur to plume." 
lie was rushing, fast as spavineil transportation could carry him, 



55 

to seize his antai!;oiiist l>y the tlivoat; and llie hand, whicli was 
raiseil to hrnsli hiin away, fell shattered. 

Most childiH'n have Inini;- with (leli<i:ht over that wondei-f'ul 
shrewdness of William Wallaee, who, when he was on one side of 
the rivcT Forth, and the Karl of Warren on the other*, dared the 
latter to cross ; and who, when the Warren of that day, contrary 
to his own judgment, was pnshed into doino- ^o hy Cressingham 
the Treasurer, coolly waited nntil one-half of the English had 
crossed the bridge, and then, charging with liis whole army, 
rontt'd the Earl, lUit in niodeiMi times, with or withont bridges, 
rivers are no insuperable barrier. The Danube was the beast of 
burden on which, m the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the 
Turk penetrated to Vienna; but it has not savt'd him trem inva- 
sions since. It is navigable as far as Ulm, and along its navigable 
length varies in width from seven hundred and sixty to u])wards 
of two thousanil yards, and so varies in depth in the course of 
twenty-four hours as to battle the ])ilots of its steamers, l>ut at 
Wagram, between the hours of '.'> and (! in tlie morning, Xapoleon 
crossed from the southern to the noi'thern bank with an army of 
150,000 infantry, 30.000 cavalry, and (iOO pieces of artillery, while 
the Archduke Charles was furiously (as he su])poscd) repulsing 
him above. The modern invader has a ])oi'table in-idge. whi(di he 
can throw down, at whatever ]KMnt of crossing he may clioose, and 
then, by concentrating a sutflcient weiglit of metal at that point, 
can render it inipossiltle to dispute etfectively his passage. Accord- 
ingly, at the First Battle of Fredericksburg, and afterwards, (Jen- 
eral Lee (diose rather to select positions, with a view to resist the 
advance of the enemy, than incur the loss which wotdd attend an 
attem])t to prevent his crossnig. 

On May 8d it was known that the Xorllu'rn ai'inv was about to 
al)andon its wintei- (piarters and move as it did. Orders were 
issued that day to the troo])S to be prepared with three days' 
cooked rations (which a s])ecial Providence gave them to prepare), 
and (irant iiad hardly begun to march befoi-e Lee began his coun- 
termarch. Signal tires blazing southward from Clarke's Moun- 
tain beat the wardrum of that long roll, not in sound, but in light. 
The scene survives with especial vividness m m\- memory, because 
the battery of whicli I was a member, and whi(di during the win- 
ter had been on picket, suddenly marched out and halted on the 



66 

Bide of the road, i^rcetcd in succession the hurrying commands 
while waiting for its own to arrive. It was an army of comrades 
which was marching there, where each command had familiar 
faces for each other. Playmates of boyhood, schoolmates of peace, 
host and guest of other days, recognized one another, and brothers 
and old friends shook hands once more to shake hands no more on 
earth. We were marching that morning to tight for freedom 
and society. To fight on the side of the true cause of luaukind 
we were marching there; against the rage of untried speculation; 
against invasion to subvert the frame and order of a common- 
wealth, 1>}' the corruption of the lowei- with the spoliation of the 
higher; against invasion, which was none the less vindictive that 
it named itself friendship for the human race. We were the few 
against the many, and we knew it as we inarched that morning — 
happy that we, too, were to be seen in honor's ranks — "we few, 
we happy few, we band of brothers." The cheer which rang out, 
the historic rebel cheer, Avas no longer the cheer of sanguine invin- 
cibility which echoed for the last time on the slopes of Cemetery 
Hill, hut something which went deeper — a 3'ell of defiance from 
men who had cause to fear, and for tiiemsclves defied the worst. 

Leaving lOarly's division and Kamseur's brigade to watch the fords 
of the Ivapidan, Ewell, whose corps consisted of lOarly, Johnson, and 
liodes (in all 14,000 men, Early says), crossed Mine JJun. moving on 
the Orange and Fredericksburg Turnpike, and camped on the after- 
noon of the 4th at Locust Grove, about five miles west of Old 
Wilderness Tavern. At 8 o'clock in the morning Grant was count- 
ing that the orders which had been given would carry his army 
clear across the Wilderness by the evening of the 5th. At that 
very instant, Lee's left liand was feeling tlirough the jungle I'or the 
collar of his adversary, while his right was lilted to deal his heav- 
iest blow. Jleth and Wilcox moved down the Plank Poa<l and 
bivouacked the evening of tiie 4th, lleth at Mine Hun and Wilcox 
at Vidiersville. These two divisions numbered at the utmost 
fourteen thousand men. Anderson's division of HiU's cor])s was 
left at Orange Courthouse to protect oui- ti'ains and secure our 
rear, with instructions, as soon as it was ascertained there would 
bo no movement on the ])art of the enemy in the direction of the 
Courthouse, to Join the corps. Longstreet niai'cliing from (Jor- 
donsville, was put in motion on a road which led into the Catharpin. 



57 

On the IGth of April, Lee had written to General Bragg, "The 
hrigades in motion with General Longstreet "will amount to about 
9.0(Ht men."' The head of Ewell's eolumn had advanced rather more 
than half the distance from Locust Grove to Old Wilderness Tavern, 
and was just in advance of the point where a road diverges to the 
Gcrmanna Ford road, when the enemy, in heavy force, was encoun- 
tered. It was Wan-en and his hrush. On the side of Ewell, 
Jones' brigade of Johnson's division and Battle's brigade of Rodes' 
division received the attack of these troops, and were driven back 
in confusion by it. '^fhe Second Vu-ginia brigade was broken and 
Jones himself killetl in endeavoring to rally it — '-the gallant J. M. 
Jones." as General Lee called him in his dis])atch — who, together 
with his aide. Lieutenant I'larly. prefei'red death to retreat in that 
supreme emergeiuy. The brigade had lieen placed on the crest of 
a gentle slope, its right resting on the Turn])d\'e; Battle supported 
it on the right — both swept away. This was Hwell's van. all that 
had come up. which Avas faring thus l)adly. 

Of the tive brigades composing Eodes' division — Battle's, Doles', 
Ivamsciir's. Daniel's, and IJ. D. Johnston's — the hitli'r had been 
sent to Jlanover Junction, some time before, to prevent a cavahy 
raid, and was still absent. Hamseur had been on picket at Mor- 
ton's Ford, and had not yet rejoined his command. Battle had 
just given way; but the brigades of Daniel and Doles immediately 
formed, and dashed with such vigor on the enemy, as to arrest and 
for the moment stagger him. with an unexpected blow. I'^well, 
riding liack to hurry up his troo]»s. one-legged as he was, fairly 
rose in liis stirru]is as he met Gordon riding ahead on his black 
charger, and knew tlial Farly, the stout old IJoman. was behind. 
"The fate ol" the army depends on you. General Gordon,'' he said. 
Gordon is said to have rei)lieil. -'We will save the day." or words 
to that elfect : but. what is of moi\' im])ortance. in acts to that 
eil'ect he did give such a reply. I'^iling to the lett in the jiine 
thiekel, he lialted, I'ronted, and le(l a counter charge, which, in 
conjunction witli Daniel and Doles, broke through the enem^-'s 
a<lvancing line, and Gordon swe])t to the rear. The fight was thus 
proceeding when IJamseur came up. and the right being extended 
by(iordon ami himself, an advance was made and Warren was 
forced back at all points. Ayres' brigade of regulars, on the right 
of Grittin, (who had formed across the turnpike) was driven 



58 

back by our left, oariyiiii^ Burtletts brigade with it, and leaving 
two guns which had been advanced on the turnpike to take advan- 
tage of the first success. Wadsworth, in moving to the left of 
Griffin, instead of taking a course due west from the Lacy House, 
which would have brought him on the prolongation of Griffin's 
line, started facing northwest, so that when he came up, his line of 
battle faced the turnpike almost at right angles to Ewell's, which 
came square upon Wadswox-th's flank with a dcsti'uctive fire, throw- 
ing it back in confusion. McCandliss' brigade of Crawford's 
division, which was to the left of Wadsworth, was surrounded and 
driven from the field with the loss of two whole regiments. War- 
ren had designed that the left of the Sixth corps should sustain 
his own right. But the woods in their jungle fought against War- 
ren. 

Our extreme left, occupied by the Stonewall brigade, was at one 
time overlapped by the enemy. The personal gallantry and skill of 
Colonel W. W. Randolph, of the Second Virginia regiment, second- 
ing the conspicuous efforts of the brigade commander (Gen. Walker), 
prevented disaster here. Later in the day the tall form of Randolph 
and all the courage it contained was laid low. Gen. Stafi'ord. of the 
Louisiana brigade, was also killed. After the enemy bad l>een 
repulsed Hays' brigade, and still latei- Pegram's, was sent by 
Early to Johnson's left. The latter, just before night, sustained 
and rc']mlsL'(l a heavy attack, in wiiieh Pegram received a wound 
which must have been severe, since for some months it detained 
that officer from the field. At the close of the day Ewell's corps 
had cajjlured over a thousand prisoners, besides inflicting on the 
enemy very heavy losses in killed and wounded, and capturing 
two ]>ieces of ailillerv. Gordon occupied the position he had 
gained on the right till after dark, when he was withdrawn to the 
extreme left. Harly's division ( com])rising, in the absence of Iloke, 
the brigades of Gordon. Hays, and Pegram) was now on the left 
of the road <li verging from the Turujfike, in extension of .lohn- 
son's line. J'odes occupied the ground he ha<l won, his left resting 
on the Turn))ike in contact with .lohnsoii, and his right in the air, 
A. P. Hill being at some unknown distance. To no human being 
could such a condition be more distasteful than to Rodes, who 
personally one of the bravest and coolest of men, had a ])roper 
horror of exposing his flanks. How far from comfortable, then, 



59 

to tiii'l liimsolf on the rim of Lee's left, witliont the smallest infor- 
mation as to whether the right rested on land or sea! It is time, 
then, that A. P. llill should be either present or aeeounted for. 
Never was theiv a day. his last only excepted, when he had greater 
need to "prepare lor action'! 

Early in the morning of the 5lh A. P. Hill's two divisions had 
resumed their march, lleth leading. They soon en.countered the 
enemy's skirmishers — dismounted cavalry. A regiment was de- 
]iloyed on either side of the road, and heavy skirmishing cou- 
tinueil until a jjoinl was reached on the Plank Poad, aliout half a 
mile west of where it crosses the Brock Ivoad at right angles, at 
which the enemy refused to be driven any larther by our skirmish 
line. At this point Ileth deployed his division, as it came up, in 
line of Inittle — three In-igades to the right, one to the left, of the 
Plank Eoad and j^erpendicular to it. Could Lee interpose the 
head oi' his column ln-tween JIancock and the remainder of Grant's 
army, while Longstreet, moving on the Cathari)in, has something 
to say to Hancock! But it was not to be in any part. Spavined 
transportation had missed the junction of the two roads by hall' a 
mile, and Hancock had hastily returned by the Brock Road, instead 
of marching forward on the Catharpin and hearing from Long- 
street, as was our ])reference. 

Hancock", whose four divisions (commanded by Barlow, Gibbon, 
Birney, and Mott) numbered, at lowest calculation, twenty-seven 
thousand men. bivouacked at Chancellorsville. as we have seen. 
On the morning of the 5th he had advanced about two miles be- 
yond Todd's Tavei'u, when, at 9 A. M., he received a dispatch from 
Meade to halt, as the enemy were in some I'orce on the WiMerness 
Turnpike. Two hours later, he was directed to move his command 
up on the Brock Pioad, to its intersection with the Orange Plank 
Poad. ILincock rode ahead, Ibund Getty's command in line of 
battle on the Bi-ock Ixoad, his left resting near the junction. At 2 
P. M. Birney Joined Getty, and formed on his lel't in two lines of 
battle. .Moll and Gibbon came u|i rapidly, and took their position 
on Birney s k-ft, in the same formation. Bai-low (with the excep- 
tion of Franks brigade, which was stationed at the junction of the 
Brock Poad and the road leading to the Catharpin furnaces) held 
the left oi" the line, and was thrown forward on some high, clear 
groujid in front of the Brock Koad. Hancock directed all the 



60 

artillery of his coininand, with the exception of Dorr's Maine bat- 
ter}' and one section of Tiicketts, to be placed in position. Dorr's 
battery was placed in position in the second line of battle, near the 
left of Mott, and the section of Eickctts was sent to Getty on the 
Plank Road. linnuMliately u))on .i;<)iii<i; into position, the division 
commanders were directed to erect breastworks, which they did. 
The second line of battle threw up l)reastworks in rear of the tirst, 
and subsequently a third line Avas constructed in rear of the Third 
and Fourth divisions. At 2:30 P. M. Hancock received a dispatch 
from the chief of statf of the army telling hini, that a ])ortion of 
A. P. ilill's corps was moving down the Plank l\oad, had driven 
back the cavalry from T^irker's, and directing him to unite with 
Getty in driving l)ack A. P. Hill beyond that point; then to occupy 
it and unite with Warren's left, whicli was said to extend from the 
right to within one and a half miles of the Plank Poad in the 
vicinity of the store. Between :> and 4 o'clock he was ordered to 
attack with Getty's command, sujiporting the advance with his 
whole {*or])s. At 4:15 P. M. Getty moved forward, and at once 
became hotly engaged. Finding that Getty had met the enemy 
in force, the divisions of Pirney and ^[ott immediately moved for- 
Avard on iiis right an<l leit. At 4::!0 P. M. Carroll's bi-igade of Gib- 
bon's division advanced to the support of Gett}''s right. A few 
minutes later Owen's brigade of Gibbon's division, and still later 
the Irish l)rigade an<l the fourth brigade of Bai'low's division went 
into a(-tion and attacked vigorously. The section of Hicketts' bat- 
tery on the Plaidv J'oad was captured and recaptured. 

'^riie advances and attacks just narrateil, not having been trans- 
acted in the de|)ths of the foi-cst merely lor scenic effect, it will be 
surmised, did not alight quite like a spent ball on our own troops. 
Aliout half-])ast tlirec o'clock, or a little later, [jce had sent an officer 
of his staff (Colonel AEarshall) to Ifetb with this message: "Gen. 
Lee directs me to say, that- it is veiy important for him to have 
possession of the l>rock IJoa<l, and wishes you to take that posi- 
tion, ])r()vi(led you can do so without l)ringing on a general engage- 
ment.'' Ileth re])lied. in etl't'ct, that the only way to tind out, 
whether it would or would not bring on a general engagement, was 
to make the attempt to take the ])Osition, which he would make 
if desired. Pcfore a re])ly could be received he was himself 
attacked with great fury. We had not thrown up the usual 



61 

inijiroiiiplii lircast works; we wtTc in a body of woods, studded 
lliiek with lieavy underg-rowtli. The enemy was, for the first time, 
fully disch)sed, when witliin alK)ut ninety yards. lie was driven 
l>ack. So soon as tiie first attackini^; eohimn couhl he cleared away, 
a second eohimn advanced to share (he fate of the first. A third, 
a fourtl). a liftli. a sixth advanced. These assaults were well pre- 
pared and well delivei'ed. They were not victoi-ious, hut no one 
can say they were ineffectual. Ik'tween valor in blue and valor in 
ra<j!;s I wish to make no invidious discrnninalion. The equal fierce- 
ness of brave men was lockeil in those lonely shadows. The issue 
had come to this simple one : who can stand most killiui;-? On 
one side of such an issue, ILelh, with not quite seven thousand 
muskets, held at bay for nearly two hours, Hancock and (jetty, 
Hancock alone having twcuty-seviui thousand muskets, and 
supporting the attack with his whole coi-ps. 1 say lleth. It 
should he Hcth and his brigade conimanders — his brigade com- 
manders and the men they commanded — all welded into one fierce 
sword, whose handle rested in lleth's grasp, and whose temper it 
may well be his ])i'ide to have makdicd with his own. The brigade 
conimanders were Colonel .1. M. Stone, I>rigadier-General .John Iv. 
Cook, Ik'igadier-Cieneral II. 11. Walkei', and Urigadier-Oeneral W. 
W. Kirkland. The names of the men they commanded i cannot 
give you. 

When the head of Hills column had been brought to a halt, and 
there was I'cason to believe that a strong force was in his front, which 
a sti'ong skirmish line could no longer drive, Lee naturally fell un- 
easiness, at the separation of the two coi'ps of his arm\-, and the un- 
cei-tainty of the tlistance separating iIkmii. lie. ilu'rctbre, ordered 
Wilcox, who came up after Ileth, to move through the woods towards 
the Old Turiipik-eando]HMi communication with I'^well. Wilcox, after 
advancing through the I'orest nearly half a mile, came (o a field of 
about that width, and at a house several hundred yards in front 
saw a small party of the enemy. Thirty or forty were ca])(iired, 
several otlicers among the number. From this house was a ixood 
vii'w of the Old Wilderness Tavern, and the enemy could l)e seen 
distinctly near it. This fact was re])orted to General Lee. Leav- 
ing two of his brigades (McGowan's and Scales') in the woods near 
the field, and rei)orting this also. "Wilcox pressed forwai-d m search 
of Ewell's right. Having crossed Wilderness Hun and reached 



62 

the woods beyond, in a lield to the right and front, the nght of 
Gordon's brigade, the extreme right of Ewell's corps was found. 
"Wilcox rode up to Gordon, but had barely spoken to him, when a 
volley of musketry was heard in the woods, into which his brigades 
had eutoi'cd but a few minutes before. Elding rapidly to the 
woods, he was met bj^ a courier from General Lee, Avith orders to 
return at once to the Plank Eoad, in consequence of the attack on 
Heth by the enemy, believed to bo in great force. The brigades 
were recalled at once, and brought back with them some three 
hundred prisoners. While recrossing the open field the enemy 
were seen again, this time moving towards the Plank Road in the 
direction of the musketry, then raging furiously. McGowan's 
brigade had already been ordered into the fight. Scales was in 
the act of moving forward to take ])Osition on the right of the 
i-oad, where the firing was heaviest. The great interval was now 
left to take care of itself 

i\ Missouri newspaper asserts that hogs arc so fat in Missouri, 
that, in order to find out where their heads are, it is necessary to 
make them squeal, and then judge by the sound. Heads and fronts 
of ottending were judged of by similar methods that afternoon. 
It was a battle in a tangled cluiparral of scrub oaks and chincjua- 
])ins. ^)nly at short distances the troops engaged could be seen. 
The rattle of musketry was the message as to where the struggle 
was severest and the reinforcing brigades most needed. Thus 
guided, the third brigade of Wilcox (Thomas') went m on the left 
of the road to take position on Tleth's left. Thomas reported the 
enemy in lEeth's rear, became engaged at once, and fought in line 
parallel with the road. Nelson, in the liay of Aboukir, told his 
sea giants, that if, in the foaming wrestle of sea nu>nstersand ocean 
gods, in whicli they were al)0ut to gra])])le, any should be troubled 
with misgivings as to the precise ordei-s of the day, he would find 
an easy way out of his embarrassment, by sim])ly closing with an 
enemy's ship — a sea-gt)d's order, which a|)plies to all sea fights 
before and since; to land fights also; to life itself, indeed, whose 
great order for every day is to close with the enemy's ship, antl sink 
it, if such a thing can be done. It was the one order which stood 
any chance of fulfillment in the blind foam and wrestle of the 
Wilderness. Brigade alter brigade was led into its depths with 
but one sure knowledge — to resist the enemy, whether he was in 



63 

front, whether he was on tlie flank', wliether he was in the rear, 
and to keep on resisting;. IJio-ht ro^-ally, with a monareh's disdain, 
as of a monarch on a hurnini;', sinking throne, tlie sun went down 
U])(>n their wrath, in (he vapors of that r)th of May. His rich 
handfuls of crimson and g-old fell among the vapors. For he went 
down red; a warrior breathing liis last, and shaming the foe ere 
ho expire with the gran<l scorn of a splendid I've. And many a 
warrioi- went down with him. The South was one day to go down 
like him. IMacid, stately clouds played u])on and lit up with noble, 
beautiful ex])ression. sailed tran([uilly over, mak'ing the face of 
things, like the great face of a strong mind, beneath which great 
passions are raging. Just at nightfall the enemy made a supreme 
effort to crush our right. Scales' brigade was bent hack almost at 
right angles to the line. • To hold Scales in place Jlill must send for 
his last brigade. His chief of staff, ( -olonel Palmer, finds this on the 
point of going in uiuler Wilcox, further to the left, where, undoubt- 
edly, it was needed. But promj)tly it is now brought to the extreme 
riglit, where it is more needed. The musketry unloosed by this 
brigade as it went in reverberated through the woods as if it might 
be the ordnance of a fresh -'Grand Arm3^" As Colonel Palmer 
was returning to the road, after the brigade was well under fire, 
he met Stuart and Colonel Venable sitting on their horses. One 
of them exclaimed: "If night would only come!" " It is Lane's 
brigade going in," said Colonel Palmer; "I feel assured the right 
will be held until night," and Colonel Venable rode off to say as 
much to the Commanding Ceneral. 

All this time the interval between Kwell and Ilill had been left 
to take care of itself, which it managed to do with marked ability. 
There was Grant's — there, at least, was a general's — opportunity. 
Detachment after detachment of the enemy came through that 
interval. One bod}" suddenly emerges about tAvo hundred yards 
from where Lee, Stuart, and Ilill are dismounted and lying down. 
If they will but come on swiftly, the General of the arm}', the 
(Jeneral of the corps, and the (General of the cavalry are their 
prisoners. The oflicer in coinnuuid. it turns out, is as much amazed 
as the officers he has surprised; (diooses rather to be swill in the oj)- 
posite direction, and as the Confederate generals jumj) up and mount 
in hot haste, gives the command "right about," and disappears in 
the timber. It was onlv necessarv to do in force and bv direction 



64 

what was done by accident and in detachment, and the Confederate 
line would have been hopele.-sly cut in two. It was such an oppor- 
tunity as this which Xapoleon seized on tlie ]ihiins of Ohiiutz. when 
Soult, at the head of the French i'i<;-lit wino;, rushed forward upon the 
interval between the Austro-T\ussian centre and left, and, inter- 
secting their line, severed the left wing entirely from the centre. 
The Sun of Austerlitz burned on his gh)\ving axle as that was 
done. On the 5th of jMay there was spread before Grant a centre of 
vacancy for nearly two miles, through which he might have bounded 
with the ease of a circus actor through a paper hoop, but he did 
not try the leap. Just as Lane's brigade went in, the enemy came 
tln-ough this interval once more. Wo had no reserves, no forlorn 
ho])e left. The whole army was the forloi-n hope. The Fifth 
Alabama battalion, the provost guard of llilfs corps, then guard- 
ing prisoners, and numbering al)0ut a hundi'ed men. was all that 
was availa1)le to meet this emergency. With a thin line they lield 
whatever was in front of them. 

Night came at last. To l)at(le as to other things it does come. 
To the stiffened sinew, to the galled shoidder, to the bleeding feet 
and beating heart, it comes. But it did not come till after eight 
o'clock on that 5th of May. When night put an end to the long 
strain the two divisions on oui' right sank down exhausted. 
Where they fought there they sank down. And Avell they might 
lie down to the warrior's slee]), u]ion tlie warrioi''s bed. Brave 
men had inarched against thcTn, strong men Iteen driven back. 
From llu- l)t'ginniiig of the wai' to the end, no more stubborn fight 
was made, against a force so well directed and overwhelming, than 
this which Heth and Wilcox made. Forty thousand men under 
Hancock had been launched against them and resisted, not with- 
out fearful inroads on their own line, if line it could now be called. 
The right and \e\\ were bent almost at right angles to the front, 
while the fi-oiit was at eveiy inuiginable angle. The troops of the 
enemy going foi- water would walk into our lines and our men 
into tlieii's. Ui-igades and regiments erosscd each other. Some 
brigailes of llrth's division were on the right, some on the left of 
the Plank iJoad. Some presented a flank to the enemy, others a 
front. The alternate charges ami repulses of a battle in the night, 
ami that night in the Wilderness, had so confused them. 

Hill was t'lati'il, and justly so. Two divisions had withstood the 
repeated attacks of a large part of Grant's army. Longstreot's 



65 

cor|)s uinl Anderson's division wore niiircliing to take the place of 
the two divisions hefore dayhght. 

Just hack of lleth's line on the left of the Plank Iload was an 
o])en tield, some seventy live acres in extent, and runnint^ from 
east to west, perlia])s, five hundred j-ards. In this fielil Hill had 
directed guns of Poague's and Mclntosli's battalions to be put in 
battery. As the ])ieces were going into jjosition Colonel Palmer 
said: --ll' Ileth is di'iven a short distance these pieces will be cap- 
tured, as there are no roads by which they can he withdrawn." 
Hill rejilied: "Jf the line should be di"iven the pieces may be 
ca])tured."' It was a })art of this artillery which served rain'dly 
the next morning, under IfiU's direction, swe])t the roa<l, and gave 
time for Ijongstreet to form. Only two pieces, in the main road, 
had Iteeii used on the oth. 

A few sticks kindled near the gun nearest the road marked the 
headquarters of the corps. Thither very speedily Heth came to re- 
]>ort the ])osition and condition of the troo])s and to ask permission 
for Wilcox and himself to fall back in order to rectify their lines, 
since the jiroximity of the o])posing army prevented a forward move- 
ment foi' t hat ])uri)ose. As (he divisions were situated, at the order 
to tire they were exposed to the danger of firing into each other. 
''A thin skirmisli line."' said Heth, '-can whij) them as they are." But 
]1 ill said : '■ Xo, 1 will not have the men dist url)ed. Ijet them rest as 
they are. It is not intended they shall fight to-morrow. Ijong- 
street is now at Mine liun. General Lee has ordered him to move 
at \- o'clock to-night. He has only eight miles to march. He 
will be here long liefore day. He will form in line back of you 
and AVilcox. Your <livisi()ns will fall l)ack through Longetreet's." 
Wilcox went to Lee himself' to I'epresent the condition of his com- 
mand. Lee no sooner saw him than he said: "A note has been I'c- 
ceived from Anderson saying he will l)ivouac at \'idiersvi]le to-night, 
but 1 liavi' ordered iiim t'orward. lie ami Longstreet will botii l)eu]) 
ami in position before or l»y da^'light, when you will be relieved." 
Lnder this im])ression Wilcox returned without having asked ])er- 
missicni to withdraw. '-Let the men i-esl foi- the night." Hill had 
said — the wearied, hard-fought men; the much indented Heth- 
\Vilcox sword, hacked and gashed with its own hard hewing, and 
bent back nowtothe very hilt with bard lijowsgiven and received. 
lliU did not believe it practicable, in the disordei- in which the 
5 



66 

action had left the ti'oo])s. to refonn his line in the woods and .serve 
ammunition before daylight. 



V. 

On the 5th the word had been, "If night will only come!" 
On the Gth it was, "If morning Avill only stay!" Longstreet 
must be there, or defeat will be there. You remember how the lull 
between the bloody work of one day and the approximation of 
another is a thing of asperity. The stars glauce down with keen, 
ill adversity it seems, a bitter brightness. Voices of the night, 
the loves of happy, the pulse of tender creatures, fall like a mock- 
ery of the impending storm. The kindness of the dews becomes 
unkind to the soldier turning on tlie jiillow of his bended arm. 

Early in the morning, Kwell rode over (proI)abl3' had been sent 
for) to see Lee. The latter was seated on an army blanket spread 
on the ground, and in tliis primitive fashion held his divan. Some 
disturbance breaking out at a distance to the K'it, Lieutenant Bur- 
well, who accompanied Ewell, is sent to lind out what it is. On 
the return of the latter, he discovers that, in riding rapidly through 
the Avoods, he luis lost his saddU- blanket, aiul bestirs himself to 
pick u]i some substitute therefor. The instant the action 
caught the eye of Lee, he sprang up, and offered the blanket 
on which he had been sitting, which, however, was respect- 
fully declined. " The inborn courtesy of the man, which no 
preoccupation of mind could make him forget for a moment, 
and the sim])le-hearted kindness of the action," writes my cor- 
res]>ondeut, "inade a very diH'p impression on me. and I have 
never forgotten the scene. The al)ility to maintain the dig- 
nity, while ])utting aside all the pomp and cireumstance of a posi- 
tion, seems to me to be jiassing away with the oldei- school of Vir- 
ginia gentlemen. This, however, I have always remarked in Gen- 
eral Lee's character as written, and as shown the few times I was 
in his ])resence." 

It IS a scene which deserves to make a deep impression on the 
country of Lee, and never to be forgot ten. I give this picture of 
the early morn, as a ray of light fallen in tlu' darkness; the ])eep of 



67 

a chivalrie day sliinini^ in the manner of its captain — tlie thought- 
ful, courteous grace *f a coniinanding mind. Xo foe too mighty 
for his prowess, no back too humble for his pity. The galled shoid- 
der shall have his own blanket, if there be no other — the wide, 
capacious breast, tilling with symi>ath3' for the humblest sorrow, 
even when in act to shoulder himself the galling weight of war, 
with '-the lilanket of the dark." his one blanket; that now worn 
quite threadbare. The true knight is hei-e. •'•'So preoccupation 
of mind" sutfers it to be obscure. The dark ground and night are 
a foil for its beauty. Let prosperity seize one by nature -'bound 
in shallows,' and bearing him on a tide "taken at the tiood," clothe 
him in purple, throne him in empire, place a sceptre of absolute 
dominion in his hand, ami still baseness will show by the famil- 
iarity of its approach, how little that satrap is king of men. On 
the other hand, take I'obert E. Lee, strip him of house and home, 
dress him in the soldier's weather-beaten rag, seat him on a fence- 
rail or the ground, and the ambassadors of the mightiest king will 
do homage in his ])rescncc. Could we but once more have such a 
mirror of the South! What if this -'little touch of Harry in the 
night'' detine our own unworthiness? 

Early on the morning of the Gth, Burnside's Ninth corj)S arrived 
on the tield. This inclnckHl the divisions of Stevenson, Potter, 
Wilcox, and Ferrero ; the Provisional brigade under Colonel Mar- 
shall; the reserve artillery and the artillery of the several divi- 
sions; but in the Wilderness the greater part of the artillery was 
no real addition. Stevenson and Eerrero were ordered to report 
to Tlancock and Sedgwick respectively. AVith his i-emaining troops 
Burnside moved in lietween Warren and Hancock and made his 
dispositions to seize Parkers Store. By dawn of the 0th the ene- 
my's line of battle, facing westward, ran north and south, without 
a gaj). for about tive miles. 

The methods by which a strong force is brought into the field 
are. in importance, second only to the conduct of it when there. 
Let no one dream that natural magic and inspiration of the 
moment are eijual to such achievement. On one side, what 
organization, what disposition can do, is now done. The mighty 
columns of the Ciraiid Army have moved into the places ap])ointed 
for them. "Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one." 
•"The last reason of kings" is in place to give judgment. If 



68 

ilic eonchision follow regularly from the premises, if the argu- 
ment do not jump clear off from the ])remises, like Seward's letter 
in the Mason and Slidell matter, victory is the ultimatum. Yet in 
this trial-lire of war, holding a future hell-fire of I'eeonstruction, 
what contingencies are still in doubt, some one of which may make 
the tiiial judgment swerve! In every voyage of life, wherever the 
sail be sj)read, thei-e is but a plank, and tluit the narrowest, between 
])reservation and destruction. The event of time mathematically 
ailjusts itself, on an even keel, to the great deep of eternity, which 
]u)lds it. as in the hollow of a hand: a hand wliich will close a 
fist of ii'on on the first o|)en seam, w liich, im])i'ovident of ])itch 
and oakum, sjirings a leak. Between Samson's strength and 
Samson's weakness is l»ut the difference of a hair. For the 
present, on one side, the miracle, which oi'ganization and dis- 
ci])lim^ perfoi-m, has been wrought. The sword of a hundred 
thousand is in the hand of one. The monster fang which tlie wand 
of society evokes, when the game is an empii-e's neck, has uncoiled 
its huge length in continuous battle front, whose units of length 
are miles. IJy dawn ! 

Some of you have l)een, no doubt, on one of our Southwestern 
bayous, or some similar spot, where the first )iotification of day, in 
that darkest hour which precedes the dawn, was the lull of the 
wolf's long howl; in place of which there came as herald of l)reak- 
ing day. the trill of every songsti'r in the woods, lilce the difieren't 
and successive notes of some musical instrument ; the s])arrow'8 
twitter, the thi'ush's warble, the mocking-l)ii'd's wild lute; and 
ja)'-liird and cat-bii'd, and hawk and heron, the ducl<s and the shi'ill 
cranes, the gari-nlous squii-rels and the meek doves mixed their 
concords and their discords in a hymn to sunrise — and far al)ove 
tlu^ song of the songster, the scream of the screaniei-. and the llight 
of the high-tlyei', the silent wing of the solitary eagle, a music in 
itself Vet all this Sal)l»ath-song and sight is the outward mask of 
universal and ceaseless, death-dealing strife. '^Fhe battle of night, 
between dei-r and wolf has ended, and the battle of day between 
bii-d and fish an<l worm has liegun. The ])rovei-biaIly early bird has 
quit his na)> betimes. Tin- little fish are mak'ing ibnntain jets in 
the air. in their terrified leap from the big ones. This is nature 
waking n|t. Or if it has been your lot to walk into some great city 
as day was breaking, you have noted as the first sign of waking, 



69 

the day laborers leavini;- the town to work in the country, or the 
country to work in tlie town, the hucksters and the first choppings 
of tlie butcher stalls, then the earhest rumblings of carriages and 
street cars, the waking Hutter by candle-light in the humbler tene- 
ments, followed by the a[)pearances of the servants at the doors of 
the greater ones, and in between the waking of the shaidy and the 
mansu)n, the steaming up of foundry and factor}', like the snort 
of some great animal; then the thi-owing open of window-blinds, 
the parade of sho[)-wiudows, the bustle of traffic, the whirl and 
tumult of an eager, hui'r3'ing multitude. You have watched a 
great city, lik'c a mighty leviathan turn and toss itself on its couch, 
slowly hurl its huge limbs out of bed. and (inally }awn, and 
streteh. and shake its eyes wide open. Vou have seen civilization 
wake u[i, the peaceful, thriving scene. But again the peacei'ul 
j)ictures<pieness is the outward nuisk, luiy the outward expi'cssion 
of interminable stril'e. ('ivilized uuin has not ceased to say to his 
brother, '"My life or thine." Mver mortal is the listed space, unseen 
Init not unrealized to-day, wherein one strength sa^'s to another, 
"With my body against yours, wUl I make good my challenge." 
Still is evei-y coigne of vantage warred for and against with sleep- 
less enmity. He who holds his own does so with a continual 
stroke. The inapt, the inert, the dissolute must serve the wary 
and active, or be slain and consumed. As the vinedresser says to 
the wood, whose strength he means to throw into his nuiin clusters, 
"You dare to wear the purple, 3'ou shall not bear a leaf" so another 
scythe with as sharp a blade. Civilization (dumgesthe coarseness, 
but not the rancor of the strife. Our great civilizers are our great 
destrovei's, |)rove their fitness to survive, by Iieing tittest to destr-o}'". 
Tamerlane's jiyramid of skulls has undergone evolution, like other 
things, but the princijile of it has proved no such function in excess 
as to become extii\ct by natural selection. 

The strength of tlie nineteenth century is the strength of science, 
trained iiielhod. logical Ibrecast of events, more vivid combination 
of details, ami more intrejud grasp of the future, powers to discern 
and powers of a<ljustineiit to lar-otf corres])ondeuces of time and 
space. More and more strength reveals itself as certain calcula- 
tion, clear, orderly arrangement, iron logic of deduction. The man 
of business is clearer, and because clearer more decided, resolute 
than others. Others take shelter under him as formerly under thQ 



70 

warrior's hand of mail. Lands and tenements, translated by his 
shrewd sagacity, as ])y the magician's wand, float to him from 
others who liave not his gifts. Eansom of steeds and aj-mor won 
in the encounter of arms, the encounter of wits, he beai s otf on the 
point ol" a sharper sense. When riches take to themselves Avings, 
he is there to pursue. Swift, penetrating common sense sits on 
his sti'cngth, like falcon on the arm. Is some object of desire 
starte*!, like lightning he flies his hawk at the game, to bring it 
down. Is resistance made, stout flght, which requites scorn for 
scorn and beak for beak? With the falcon glare and grip, the 
stronger talon rips out the heart of a foe. Nineteenth-century 
victories are business victories, won less in the day of actual 
fight than in the day of training. The battle is the preparation 
for it, with all the sciences, economies, disciplined intensity and 
virtue of a people. The rank and file which rushes to the 
charge is the seal and measure of Avhat has been done, as on com- 
mencement day prizes are bestowed, not for the present l)ut the 
past. He who has trained, equipped himself the best, who has 
most purged himself i'rom all weak or dark infirmity, untenable, 
unsound, ungoverned ways, all charlataniy and sham, tlien fronts 
his adversary, with knowledge, discretion, sound, uncorrupt man- 
hood, the cool head, the steady hand, he is fittest to survive. AVith 
quiet collected strength, he compels the agencies of land and sea 
to be his servants. Steamship and railway, all the enginery, all 
the devillry of commerce bend obediently to him, grow pliant as 
soft WAX under his pressure. Even the winds and the waves obey 
him. As we grasp one handle to how another, he, the true 
Briarcus. stands at the end ul' a long line of levers and thermo- 
electric multijdiers, and, with clear common sense for fulcrum, 
humlred-handed moves a world. 

Of the form of this modern woi'ld and the fashiou of its strength, 
science is the glass and the mould, holding the mirror up to the 
meridian lines, Avhi(di Xature has drawn for a world. Nature's adju- 
tant calls the roll of Nature's 'Mnvincibles," Avith unsheathed 
sword, calls attention to that "Old Guard" of Nature whicli neither 
dies nor surrenders; about wliich society forms in hollow-square, 
or kicking against which by slicer persistence of force, society is 
impaled and eliminated. Pitiless, appalling, almost beautiful with 
that beauty which Milton saj's, has terror in it — as bright, deadly 



71 

steel, flashing in the sun is beautiful — this wide remorseless war- 
fare, wherein ditlicult victory is the price of all existence. Brute 
animal life is compelled to discriminate, to tind and keep the envi- 
ronment which is safe for it, wise tor it, or else cease to exist. The 
wild animal cannot wear a Joseph's coat of many colors as the 
tame one docs. Prudence, and the vigilance of adversaries seeking 
whom they may devour, forbid this. The partridge must be like 
the straw which hides the partridge, the brown and yellow autumn 
straw. Partridges of another color are quickly discovered and 
destroyed. At last this becomes the only color, the sole banner 
partridges can fight under. Or strength in the form of a lion falls 
on fleetness in the sha])e of the antelope. Starvation behind, speed 
like that of a bird in front! Only the strongest lions, the swiftest 
antelopes live. Animal life clothes itself with the element it lives 
in, takes traits from that, becomes that. And must not man too 
find the banner he can fight under, which is the same as the ban- 
ner he is ready to die under? For him too must not the greatest 
victories be gained by not exclusively sale paths; "amid the con- 
fused noise of warriors, and garments rolled in blood," not where 
the baggage trains are guarded? 

Onward sweeps force, stern, avenging, having mercy on whom it 
will have mercy, sulTering only litness to survive — the multitudi- 
nous, majestic, all-enveloping force of a universe, on-sweeping, 
divmel}' fair, divineh' terrible! 

AVith Nature to be weak, is not to be misei*ablo alone, it is to be 
criminal. The penal statutes go unrepealed on Nature's statute 
book. Alphonse Karr said, in discussing the abolition of capital 
punishment, "Messieurs les assassins, commencez les premiers." 
Nature says the same. For the highest there is ceaseless tension 
and toil; no height of character attained without much difficult, 
much painful breathing. Look into the faces of the saints who 
have lived, of the martyrs who have bled for mankind, of the 
artists who have wrought to express, the heroes who have fought 
to maintain the truth, see how they are written over with the 
lofty silence and battle-pain of life! Ah, yes! they have broken 
their bitter fast on the bread and wine of sorrow, the Ibod of the 
immortals, the cup which Gods have given, and Godlike men have 
quaffed. The clouds which close around them are made their 
chariots of fire, and the portion of life, sworn foe to cant, is still — 



72 

the cross! AVliut should fervent soundness be, but ratsbane to the 
sweet tooth of a trimmer? 

But that here in this dark wood such a storm of rifles, making 
the earth quake, should hang in the air, ready to be touched off 
by the first light of a Ma}' morning! As it were, "the erroneous 
Avood of this life" and "the dark battle of them who see not 
be3'ond it"! To the hillsides and winding gullies, where the 
woodsman's axe has rarely or ]iever rung, and only the hunts- 
man's hounds waked the echoes, order has come at last — the order 
of liattle! Elsewliere, at this hour, the farmer is winding his horn 
from ()])cii window. The ]>low-l)oy is gearing up his team, and 
soon the slices will roll over from the mould-board, and new fur- 
rows lie shining in the peaceful glebe. And the sower goes forth 
to sow. lioping (in such times, against hope) to rea]i in turn. The 
kine are lowing. It is the legendary hour, when th"e pretty milk- 
maid, hiding her blushes in her pail, with fresh sunlight in her eye, 
hears from her lover "the old, old story." Not often witnessed in our 
land, at this early hour, I believe, but at other hours very often 
witnessed — the soft, rosy flush of daybreak and young wonder, life's 
rosy aurora, drawn about young lite. And wherever in our land 
such life waked that morning, it breathed a ])raycr for some friend, 
or l)rothei-. or more than brother, in the Wdderness. There "busy 
hammers" have been "closing rivets up." The sergeants are now 
roused, and are shaking up their detachments. In an instant, a 
breath "hke a stream of brimstone," will kindle ■■the tiery, flying 
serpent," and loud death-blast. But fortius instant there is still- 
ness — "tiie torrent's smoothness, ere it dash below"! < )n tiie very 
briid< scarce a ripple to be seen, an<l then, the jut of Hell! 

HuiMiside is up, wc have seen. Longstreet and Anderson arc 
not up. 

Lee had gone into the tight, having on the ground not more 
than twenty-eight thousand muskets, all told. With this snudl 
force (diminisheil by the losses of llie day ln'fore i. and with the 
view of divei'tiiig the l>low about to descend, from the point whei-e 
he was least ])repared lor it, be himself renews the light on fiWell's 
front, sti'iking (ii'ant on his right flank (Seymour's brigade), and 
involving the wlioU' of two di\isions ( IJicketl's and Wright's). In 
vain, however. The anticipated Mow <lescen(ls according to orders 
("attack along the whole line at Ave o'clock '") a few miiuites later. 



73 

Oil the 4th Loiii^'stroat was advised by the Coinmanding-Ciencral 
tliat tho oiu'iny a|)i)eai'ed to 1)C moving" towards Stevensbiirg. In 
t'ontbrmity with orders, Long-street gets his men upon their legs 
about four o'clock in the afternoon, anti inarches to Brock's Bridge, 
on the border of Orange county, bringing Kershaw over some four- 
teen miles, from Gordonsville. and Field some sixteen, from Lib- 
erty Mills. On the morning of the 5th he resumes his march, and 
goes into caiu[) that evening near Richards' Shop, on the C'athar- 
]iin Ivoad, twelve miles from his point of starting, and six or seven 
miles, by a road through the woods, from Parker's Store. During 
the latter part of this day's march. Kosser was skirmishing in front 
with his r>rigade of cavalry. 

During the night Hancock was infoi'ined that his right would 
be relieved by General Wadsworlh. of the Filth corps, and two 
divisions of the Ninth corps, under Jkirnside, and cautioned to 
keep a sharp lookout on his left. Before fiv(! A. M. he received 
word tliat Longstreet was moving on the Catharpin IJoad to fall 
upon his left, and Barlow's division was placed in position to 
receive him at the point it was supposed he would advance. But, 
whatever had been Fjce's tirst intentions for Longstreet on the 
Catharpin, at 12:;>0 A. M. on the (5th. the latter general, by Lee's 
orders, started for Parker's Store. Arriving there about dawn, ho 
was directed to press on at once to relieve Ifeth and Wilcox. He 
had some two miles stdl to march. A Confederate line hopelessly 
outnumbered and outHanked desperately awaited him. 

A little before ilayiireak. fearing he would be attacked before he 
could be relieved, Wilcox orderetl the j)i<)neers to fell trees to make 
an abattis. but the jiioneers were tired on and could not continue, 
lie lookiMl up; tln' ti)ps of tlu' trees had caught the morning re<l. 
Then he sat watching the east, as the veins of day throbbed across 
the morning, lleth, too, '-agitated l»v an anxiety such as he never 
felt bei'ore or afterwards,'' finally deteniiineil to lay matters before 
Lee; searched I'or him two hours in vain; then walked U]) and 
down in reai- of his troo|)s until he fancied he saw day breaking, 
when, ordering his horse, he went at lull s])i'e(l down the road — 
but no Tiongstreet ! Li des|)air he returned to his troops. Day 
had fairly broken. 

Xo one slept that night at Hill's head(|uarters. I5efore day the 
horses were saddled. .\s dav broke, and nothini!- was heai'd of 



74 

Longstrect, the suspense was insupportable. All knew the two 
divisions Avould give way, if attacked, and all knew they would be 
attacked. Leaving his chief of statt" beside tlie smouldering sticks, 
where the night had been spent. Hill, with the rest of his staff, 
rode to the left beyond the guns. He was hardly out of view 
when Longstreet galloped on the tield, l)Ut to the questions which 
were quickly put to him, he replied, "My troops are not yet up. 
I have ridden ahead to find out the situation." As he spoke his 
voice was di-owned in the roar of musketry. 

Believing resistance to be futile in such formation as he had, 
Heth ordered his brigade commanders to take his men to the rear 
as fast as possible. In effect, the men were ordered to run. and 
the signs are the}' obeyed, Avith all the means which God and nature 
had put into their feet. If they did not severally show a clean 
pair of heels, it is partly to be ascribed to the fact, that the same 
were not there to be shown. For a while it looked, as if we were 
ahout to prevail over the encm}', as our ancestors beat the British 
at Bladensburg — "in the long run." 

The circle of attack soon closed around Wilcox. Beginning on 
his right, in a few minutes it was raging all along his front and on 
hoth flanks. -'It was only a f[uestion of time," says Wilcox, "how 
long* my men could hold their ground. At length the men were 
seen giving way, but not in disorder." Wilcox rode rapidly to 
Lee, not thi'ce hundred and fifty yards from the troops then 
engaged. Lee said to him, "Lonstreet must be here; go bring him 
up." Dashing to the road to see if he was in sight, Wilcox met 
f be head of Kershaw's division. This he directed to file to the 
right of the road and form line as quickl}- as possible, for fear his 
own men might be forced back upon Kershaw before he couhl get 
into position ; which is what did very speedily ha]>pen. Our whole 
line was coming back like a wave. There were at this time two 
batteries on the left of the road. General Hill rode along the 
line of tbese guns, directing them how to fire, which the}^ were 
compelled to do, while some of our own men were in the path of 
their projectiles. H was said of the Turks, in the Crimean war, 
tliat a wise instinct taught them, that, if there was one thing 
which ought not to be left to late or to tlie ])recepts of a deceased 
prophet, it was tlie artillery. 



75 

The lano'uagc of Long-street's official report is: "Kershaw's 
division was in the lead. Arriving in the rear of the line held by 
these- two divisions (Ileth and AVik'OX)thc head of my column filed 
to the right, and liail only tiin(> to deploy two regiments of Ker- 
shaw's old lirigade, w hen an advance was nuule hy the whole line 
of the enemy, and the divisions of Ileth and Wdcox hroke and 
retreated in some confusion." Hancock is justitied in saying: --The 
enemy's line was broken at all points and he was driven in confu- 
sion through the forest;" lint he is inaccurate when he adds, "for 
about one and a half miles." 

With steadiness, opening their rank's to let the reti-eating troops 
through, Kershaw's division formed line of battle on the right, 
each l)rigade forming separately under tire, in a dense thicket, 
whi( h rendered it impossible to see either the character or numbers 
of the foe they were to resist. 

Ilennegan was thrown on the right, and the Second South 
Carolina regiment deployed and jiushed forward on the left of 
the road. Almost immediately the enemy was ui)on them. Ilen- 
negan having passed sutTiciently to the right to admit of the 
deployment of General irum])hreys to his left, this formation 
M'as made in good order under the tire of the enemy, who had so 
far penetrated between Ilennegan and the road, as to almost 
enfilade the Second South Carolina and the batteries holding the 
leit. Humphreys was [jusIumI ibi-ward as soon as he got into 
position, and Bryan's brigade coming uj), was ordered into ]iosition 
to Hennegan's riglit. 

The two batteries on the left of the road had opened at the 
critical instant of the day. Their tire had the desired effect of 
checking the enemy momentarily. That moment was decisive. 
Longstreet. arriving so late, l)ut so o])portunely, had time to form. 
General Lee now appeared on the left leading Hood's old brigade. 
Longstreet had just tiled two brigades in rear of the guns, and 
riding slowly along their front, as tlu'V came into line, had cau- 
tioned them to keep cool, and gave them his own example. As 
the Texas In-igade moved through the guns, General Lee rode on 
their tlank. and raising his hat. saluted them as old Iriends who 
had too long been parted, and said aloud, he would lead them him- 
self To him the Army of Northern Virginia is "as a steed that 
knows his ritler." The tine eye of Lee must often have glistened 



76 

witli soiiietliiii^- liftter than a coiK^ucror's pride, wlieiiever he 
rc'oalk'd the crv. with which that veteran rank and lilo sent him to 
the rear, and themselves to the front. The name of that warlike 
man, who stepped out from the ranks to seize the bridle of Trav- 
ellei', and force him and his rider back from the battle shower, I 
cannot g-ive j'oii. A tall, gaunt tigure, clad iu rags, and the light- 
beams of a beautiful heroic splendor, rises before us for an instant, 
and tlien pei'ishes out of view, as the ti'uly great are wont to per- 
ish — their very names forgotten, or known only to God; their 
dee<ls and the fruit of them imperishable. Lee was sto})ped ; he 
and his horse reined in, while the men cried, "We will go I'orward, 
but you must go back." So said, so acted these Texas men, loving 
a higher than themselves better than themselves, this their last 
feeling. Tt was a fine old gladiatorial, morituri te scdutamvs, only 
tiner in that it was freer, for altars and for hearths, not for a 
Ivoman holiday. They flung their cai)s into the air. and, with a 
shout which was their stern farewell, swept onward. Their front 
was to the east as the}' took their last gaz-e of this earth. Sunrise 
was shining in their faces as their own sun set. The smile of that 
May morning kissed their faces as they fell. The rising sun was 
their winding-sheet. Savages, J am told, the.-e Texans were. There 
was nothing savage in theii- chivalry. 

Longstreet's first order to Kield was to form line of buttle on 
the right. i»ci-pendicuhir 1o the i-oad. Meld thereupon threw 
Anderson's bi-ig;ide, which was leading, in line to the right. But 
before it (•i)uld be followed up li}- the others, a second onler came 
to form in (he (piickest order ])ossible, and (diai'ge witii any front. 
Throwing (Jregg's Texas brigade on the lei't of the road, as has 
been stated, and P>enning behind Clregg, and I^aws behind Benning, 
and .lenkins liehin<l fjaws, Field slipped llu' K^ash. lie had but to 
j)oint to the enemy. The Texas brigade dashed forward as soon as 
it was formed, without waiting for the lu-igadesin the rear. Igno- 
rant of wliat was in Iront of tiieni, Ihi' view being oiistructed by 
a slight I'ise and some scattered i»ines. I lie enemy came on. 

At the iiislaut there was nothing there to oppose him but (iregg's 
Texans. less than five liiindi-ed sti'ong. flanked on both sides, 
these struck him a staggering blow full in the face, these forced 
him back — but with a loss of two-l birds of their own iiumbei* 
kille<l and wounded in ten minutes. Later in the campaign, 



77 

aiul after some reeruitiiiii; had taken place, Secretary Eeagan 
wont out from Iiic-lim(jn(l to visit the ])riga<le, and reported that it 
averaged two and two-fifths wounds to a num. Some companies 
were entirely ol)iiterated. One company for months had on duty 
hut a single man, a lieutenant — all the rest killed or wounded at 
the Wilderness! Onward sped the Texas whirlwind, till it whirle<l 
itself into a thing of shre(ls and tatters; hanging together at the 
last, like the limhs of a l)ody, adhering hy the skin, after the l)One 
has heen crushed. They closed u]) their ranks over their comrades 
as they fell, till there was no longer a rank or a comrade to close. 
No laurelletl Six Jlundred ever charged more nohly than these Five 
Iluii<li'e(l. Glorious is it, and glorilied ever, when a AVinkelrie<l 
gathers the imlomitahle sjiears into liis arms, and says to liherty 
at his lauuk, ■• Forward over me ! '" — ransoms an army l)_y his own 
immohitioni Even so these Texans nuide tiieii- l>osoms u sheath 
for the thnnderholt. They huried defeat on the field, under a 
mound of theii' own coi-pscs. They step])ed to the gravc-s of mar- 
t\rs with the gi'ace of i-oui'tiers. Thoy had hut an instant to think 
ami to act, and they made it one of im])erishahle heauty. The 
long track of light, which followed in the wake of their valor, 
they did not. could not see. Their Wilderness was then; their 
]iromised land eternity. Ai't will depict a scene which no art can 
exaggerate. Theii- greatest jticture lives on a canvas of reality, 
woven in hlood, and flame, and "hattle s])k'n(loi-""— immortal there, 
as heroism only is. Band of Immoi'tals! in your "iron sleep"' take 
our proud and sad good-l)ye. 

The Texas lii'igade met and ovei"canu> the first shock at this 
])oiiif. It was followed hy Benning's Georgia hrigade with "sig- 
nally (heering results'- (I'^ield mentions in his re])ort). m aehii'ving 
which lienning was wounded and the hi'igade much cut u]). 
Tiaws" hrigade (Colonel Peny) followed, hut the enemy was so far 
checked that the losses in this hrigade were not so heavy. Jen- 
kins could he fornu'<l. and for a time held in reserve. Pei'rin's hri- 
gade of Anderson's division (^just arrived on the tieldj went in on the 
right of I>aws. The enemy's ]irogress had heen stopped, and he 
had heen driven hack on the left hy the Texas, Georgia, ami Ala- 
hama hrigades. On the right, urged forward hy Longstreet and 
unahh^ to further extend his line with the hrigade of WotTord, 
then marching as ivai'-guai'd to the wagon-ti-ain. Kershaw ])laccd 



himself at llie head of his flircc brigades, aiul led in person a charge 
wliieh retired soniewhal the confident Noi1h. A pause ensued, 
wherein Hancock, in great force, stood still, owing, it is explained, 
to the disintegration of his line in advancing through the thickets; 
coinmendator}' to the lighting quality <>f A'ii-ginia hrush, which, 
like Birnam wood, it seems, can cast a warlike shadow, and meddle 
in assault and l»attery. At 7 A. M. Hancock sends fresh orders to 
press on, hut it was not until two houi-s later (owing, he thinks, to 
the a])pre]iended a})proach of Ijongstreet on his left) that Avith 
half of (xrant's army well in hand, he attacked with all his- 
power. The struggle ibr life or death which follows strains 
every sinew, yet is without permanent advantage to either side. 
Tlie same ground was fought over in succession by both. About 
9:15 A. ]\r. Hancock received a dispatch telling him "to attack 
simultaneously with Burnside." Hancock being at that instant 
siiiiultaneously attacked himself, on the right and lel't of the Plank 
Ivoad, exhibits very unmistakably his view, that the person Avho 
most needed to be simultaneous was Burnside. Half an hour later 
Hancock received a disjtatch that Cutler's brigade of the Fifth 
corps had fallen back' considei'ably disorganized. Hancock must 
take measures to check this movement of the enemy, as Meade 
has no troops to spare; and two brigades of Birney are sent, who 
connect with Waivren's left. The lirnig again died away, and there 
was a lull all along the line until about noon. Hancock had 
advanced, jnet Jjongstrcet, fought, accom])lished nothing. 

Thrown suddenly', while still marching by the Hank, into the 
presence of an advancing foe, Longslreet laid hold on two liatterics 
of artillery, as an athlete might seize a horizontal bar, and wheel 
his whole body to a level. Blucher might have l>een jn'outl ot the 
tenacious hand which was laid on the trunnions of those guns, and 
Macdonald's column never tore a bloodit'r wreath. 

Ileth and ^Vi^•ox had been moved to the leit, to lill u]i the inter- 
val between Longstreet and I'iWell. an<l protect Longstreet's left; 
with the exception of a ])arl of l)avis' brigade of Heth's division 
undt'r Colonel Stone, of .M ississipjii, whicdi fought all the rest of 
the day with Longstreet's forces. Colonel Stone was conipliniented 
on the field by General Hill. General Lee sent two telegrams in 
respect to these divisions. The first on the 511) : '-Heth and AVil- 
cox have i"e])uls(Ml the rc))eated and desperate assaults on the 



79 

Plank Road."' The second on the 0th : "Iletli and Wileox, in the 
act of beino; relieved, were attacked and thrown into some confu- 
sion." The statement in Hancock's re])ort, Apjileton's Cycopa'dia 
and elsewhere, that "Hill was driven back one and a half miles," 
is of course inaccurate. The (wo l)atteries, whose tiro at the criti- 
cal moment had helped to check the enemy, were some three hun- 
dred yards (sa}' four hundred) from where the fio-ht bc_<>-an. The 
enemy never reached those guns. There is nothing which so 
touches mo. as the defeat or eclipse of the truly brave. Their sor- 
row, or their shame, is of a noble soi-t. From first to last these two 
divisions had the liar<lest task. Tt was theirs, in that lonely Wil- 
derness, to hold a( i»ay an army, and an army under Hancock, 
until their own could come up; and then on the morrow, through 
no fault of their own, sec another snatch the laurel from their 
Itrow. They had to do more than show courage in diliicultv — 
that they did on the 5th. They had to do more than show cour- 
age in disaster — that Longstreet did on the fith. They had to 
bring order out of their own confusion, recover the cul)its of their 
stature out of their humiliation. They had to form though 
they had been broken, and a<lvaiico where they had tied. From 
first to last, theirs was intrinsically the hardest task. The great- 
est thing need not be the most famous, nor that Avhich is cheered 
or cheers itself the most. In war as elsewhere, magnanimity does 
not consist in never lieing thrown. Its grand quality — all the 
more so. that the loud cheering is not for it but against it — is the 
heart to i-;illy under defeat. 

Andersons brigades, arriving after Longstreet, and after the 
sharpest of the attack was over, were successively sent off by him, 
where they wore most needed, until he had Iiut one left, Mahonc's. 
An examination of the enemy's position now led to a movement 
which came near to being glorious Avith complete success. The 
brigades of Mahone. Andei'son. and Wotford, of which ^Fahone as 
Senior brigadier was in command, were moved beyond the enemy's 
left, with orders to attack him on his left and m rear. The enemy, 
who was now, at intervals only, bearing down n])oii our line, was 
at the same moment to be attacked in front. The long-cxjiected 
flank movement came at last, and when it was least desired. The 
troo])s in front moved down on both sides of the road, and started 
the enemv back, at first slowlv. until the effect of the flank move- 



80 

ment was felt, avJkmi lie liroko in confusion, leaving his dead and 
Mounded thiek upon the tield. '-The^' came yelling like so many 
infuriated devils," writes the cori'cspondent of the New York 
World. Could Ta'c have s])ared a larger force from his front, say 
fi'oiu Iletli and Wilcox: repeated the audacity of Chancellorsville! 
Again and again hy just such venture he achieve<l his douhle gains. 
His greatest victoi'ies were won uiidei" a Idade suspended b}^ a 
hair. So it is wiili victory. To know how to dare everything 
at the right })lace and inonuMit is one of its secrets. If once more 
it may he done! See what three briga<les ai'c doing, co-operating 
with others in front ! They fall on Hancock's left, crushing Frank's 
brigade, swecjting away ^Mott's division, llancoek's lell is forced 
back. I Te endeavors to retani the advanced position, lield by his 
right on the Plank Ivoad, but cannot do so. Ife rallies on the 
original line from whi(di lu' advanced. We are I'olling him up bke 
a sci'oll. The IMank Koad is ours. We are victorious. We are 
marching to fui-ther victory. Wadsworth gives way in fi-ont, him- 
self struck' down. The Alaliama brigade sweej) over him. Grant's 
army totters. Ah-eady j'epulsed, it is now threatened with destruc- 
tion. In such a moment. Longstreet "fell, l)leeding like an ox." 
It was anothei- such monuuit, when ,Iose])h K. Johnston fell at 
Seven Pines; another such, when our star of chivalry, the Sidney 
of Shiloh (l)right inmge of liim of Zut])hen) falling from his liorse, 
thi'ew the jialloi' of his death on his victory, as it rolled over bun 
in the dust. 

In concert with the attack ofth(! inranl I'v on front and llaidv, 
two guns of McI ntosh's battalion were ])ushed down the road, 
firing as they went. liongstreet had stoj^ped for an instant, at the 
suggestion of General Lee, to direct the removal of some logs 
which im])eded the guns, aixl then, accompanied by l)riga<lier- 
Genei'al Jenkins and staff, continued down the road. Hancock was 
now back on t he Prock Road holding his last position. l)is])Osi- 
tions were made for ;i fiii'lliei- attack u|)oii (he position on the 
Pi-ock Roatl. Kershaw was to break the line and ])ush it to the 
right of the I'oad towar<is Fredericksburg, wlnle ,Ieid<ins should 
m;ii'ili li\' the tlaiik dnwn the i'oa<l. lu'yond oui' main line of battle 
and of skirmishers, and then deploy and sweej) the Bi'ock Hoad. 
Ki'i-shaw was I'iding with .lenkins. at the hea<l of the bi'igade of 
the latter, when two or three shots wei'e lii'ed on the left of the 



81 

roa<I, anil iiniiic(ii;iti-ly afterwards a volley was poured into the 
head of the coluinn (Voni the woods on the rigiit, occupied hy Ma- 
houe's lM'ii;a<le. Uy this fire Lonii'street was dangerously wouiuled, 
and Jenkins killed. Tin' fall of these two generals, the one Avho 
was in coniinand of the movement on the flaidv'. and the corps com- 
numder. who had hardly tinished giving his orders, it ma}' be, had 
not (■onii)letely given them, must account for the confusion and 
delay w hich followed; and the necessity whicdi was felt forstraight- 
ening the line before going on. This consumed time, which Han- 
cock impi'oved to reform his broken columns. 

Hancock's account of this transaction is very simple. The Con- 
federates advanced U})0n Krank's brigade, which, '■ having been 
hea\ily engaged in the earlier ])arl of the day. had exhausted its 
ammunition, and was com[)elled to ivtire before the enemy, whose 
attacdc was made with great vehemence. Tins was Longstreet's 
attack. Passing over l-'ranks lirigade. they struck the left of 
Mott's division, which, in turn, was forced back. Some confusion 
ensuing among the troojis of that division. F endeavoretl to restore 
order, and to reform my line of battle along the Orange Plank 
lioad, from its extreme advance to its junction with the Brock 
IJoad. by throwing ba(-k my left, in order to hold my advanced 
position on that road, and on its right : but was unable to eflect 
this, owing to the partial disorganization of the troops, which was 
to lie attributed to their having been engaged for many hours in a 
dense forest under a heavy and mui-derons musket r>' lire, when 
their organization was partly lost. General IJirne}', who was in 
command of that portion of the line, thought it advisable to with- 
draw the troops from the woo(ls. where it was almost impossible 
to adjust ')ur lines, and to reform them in the l>reastworks along 
the Brock IJoad. on our original line of battle. " flaking allow- 
ances for certain pardonable euphemisms, the true face of the 
matter is seen to be as lieretofore stated. Mr. Swinton writes: 
''It seemed, indeed, that irretrievable disaster was u|»on us; but 
in the very torrent and tt'm])est of the attack it suddenly ceased, 
and all wasstill." And again: ■■ But in the very fury and tempest of 
the Confederate onset, the advance was of a sudilen stayed l)y a 
cause at the moment unk'nown. This afterwards pi-oved to have 
been the fall of the head of the atta(d<. " 



82 

General Lee now came in ])erson to the front, and ordered Ker- 
shaw to take position with his right resting on the road-hed of the 
Orange and Fredericksliurg railroad. an<l told Field t«^ straighten 
his line — Field and Kershaw being perpendicular to the Plank 
Road, and the turning force parallel with it, to which fact was due 
the casualty which liad just hapjiened. With the exception of 
Woftord's brigade, Kershaw was engnged no more that day. It 
was 4 o'clock in the afternoon before the next advance was made. 
Hancock is now too strong behind his works to l)e successfully 
driven from them. He is greatly shaken in them, however, and 
greatly demoralized behind them, to an extent which shows how 
near we were to victory i'our lioui-s earlier, when the blindest acci- 
dent ]>ulled down the head of the attack; nay, how narrowly we 
grazed it this second time, after the la])se of hours had given 
leave to fortify behind breastworks; which, but for the fall of the 
two cenerals, wouM not have been gran(e<l. There was nothing 
else but to drive from a sti-ong line, l)y main force, an enemy pre- 
pared now against manonivre and surprise. A IJussiaii proverb 
says, "Measure ten times, you can cut only once.'' Precious as 
his army was, Lee might well have hesitated to assault a position 
so delende<i and defensible, after his chief lieutenant had been 
borne from the Held, it was a time to look about him well, to look 
befoi-e and after, with a provident, reflecting eye. to see surel}' 
what might be expected of great daring. Tn the foui-th year of 
till! war. it was not lawful to dare too much. Lee looked before he 
would dare this leap for his adversai'y"s wall. ITow, being in, he- 
bore himself, the opposer is aware. Hancock's re]iort being once 
more at baud. 1 will let that si)eak- for me. 

"At 4:15 1'. M., tlu" enemy advanced against my line in force." 
"After half an hour had passed, some of the troops began to waver, 
;uid finally a jxtrtiou of MolCs division and Ward's brigade of Bir- 
ney's division, in the tii-st line, gave way, i-etiring in disorder 
towards Chancellorsville. My staff and other oflict'rs made great 
e.\'(M-tions to rallv these nn'ii, and many oi" them were returned to 
the line of battle, but a ]»orfion of them (•()uld not l)e collected 
until the action was over. As soon as the break occurred the 
enemy itusheil forward, and some of them reached tbi^ breastworks 
and planted theii- flags thereon. * * * The confusion and dis- 
organization among a portion of the troops of Mott's and Birney's 



83 

divisions, on this occasion, was greatly increased, if not originated, 
by the front line of breastworks having taken fire a short time 
before the enemy made his attack; the flames having been com- 
municated to it from the forest in front (the battle-ground of the 
morning), which had been burning for some hours. The breast- 
works, on this portion of my line were constructed entirely of logs, 
and at the critical moment of the enemy's attack, were a mass of 
flames, which it was impossible at that time to subdue', the fire 
extending for many hundi'cd paces right and left. The intense 
heat and the smoke which was driven by the wind directly into 
the taces of the men, prevented them on portions of the line from 
firing over the parapet, and at some points compelled them to 
abandon the line." 

Hancock's position was a trying one. Suddenly the gloom of 
the dense wood was pierced with the fierce glare of conflagration. 
The torch was added to the sword. But if it is hard to stand firm 
beliind a breastwork of fire, is it nothing to cliarge up to it and 
plant a flag upon it? Jenkins' South Carolina brigade, led by Brat- 
ton now, under a withering fire rush up to the works and into 
them, l)ut it seems are not supported as they should have been, 
and Carroll, hurr3'ing up, is too strong for them. Blackened with 
the smoke of gunpowder and other smoke, they fall back discom- 
fited — save them who fall l)ack dead — they flame-girt, the breast- 
works of the enemy, their funeral pyre. 

The correspondent of the World wrote: ''Mott's division fell back 
in confusion. Stevenson's division gave way confusedly, compelling 
the remainder of the left-centre to fall back some distance. Craw- 
ford's division suftered severel3^ One of its regiments, the Seventh 
Pennsylvania reserve, was captured almost in a body, and the 
enemy succeeded in reaching our breastworks. There was immi- 
nent danger of a general break, but General Hancock ordered 
Colonel Carroll's brigade to form at right angles with his line, and 
sweep tiie whole front of it, which resulted in complete repulse of 
the enemy. The first tew moments we were staggered. Stragglers, 
for the first time, streamed to the rear in large numbers, choking 
the roads and causing a panic In' their stampede, and the incohe- 
rent tales of frightful disaster. It was even reported at headquar- 
ters that the enemy had burst entirely through. * * Grant and 
Meade seated, their backs againsi the same tree, quietly listened to 



84 



llio oHiccr who lir()iiii,-hl the report, iui<l consulted a moment in low 
tones. * * * 'i'Jify ''lit h)oke(l into each other's faces. At 
length Grant says, with laconic emphasis, "I don't believe it!"' 

In the interval l)et\veen the two attacks of our right, Grant had 
observed to Mr. Swinton. as the\' sat "under the trees on tlie hill- 
side," '■ It has been my experince that though the Southerners 
fight desperately at first, yet when we hang on for a da}' or two 
we whip them awfully.'" 

The great man was ■•silting on the grass, smoking alternatel}' a 
pipe and a cigar — calm, imperturable, quietly awaiting events" — 
evidently intended as a picture of the moral sublime, this climax of 
a cigar! IJeady for a ])ipe too, '-efpial to (Mther fate," the calm, 
imperturable one! the Son of Fortune "quietly awaiting events ! " 
and able to speak with so much foresight and discrimination! 

Conformably Avilh tliis iullsi(K'-view of Ihiugs. Grant sent word 
to Hancock to attack again at G o'clock in the evening. It was 
while the latter was making his dispositions to this end, that the 
Confederates had resumed the offensive. After they had fallen 
back a disi)atch was received countermanding the order to attack 
at SIX. Grant did -'hang on for a day or two," for a month or 
two, tor many ilays and many mouths; and a '• ragged edge" it 
was to him. Whether, on any one of those days, he did whip any 
number of rebels very awfully, or to himself very gloriously, is a 
question which should be reserved, perhaps, for some more dispas- 
sionate time. That day after day, and month after month, he 
failed to do so is a])])areut. The battle in this ])art of the field may 
be summed uj) by sax'ing: Hancock liro]<e our right in tlu' morn- 
ing. Lougstreet drove him liack, and broke his left in the evening — 
over the same gi-ound. 'fhey did not i*each our guns, and, we did 
not reach the Brock" Koail. 

■'The reljels cannot endure another such day, and we can," was 
the wonl in "The Union Cam))" as the sun went down on thcGth. 
"The Union ('amp " was prcinatui'c in this. '-The rel)els" were 
not worn o'ut '■ by at trition " in one battle, or in two. They could 
eudui'e many more such days, 'i'hey coidd endure more that day. 

On our right, a \v\y heavy attack had been made in the morning, 
on Early's front. I'ersisteiit attacks revealed to Warren and Sedg- 
wick, that the sacrifice of life in the effort to carry this front was 
useless. From sunrise to sunset the critical moments and conflicts 



85 

were on llie rii;-lit. P)Ut one most siul event on Ewell's line, it were 
a serious omission not to mention. 

Early on the (!th Col. .John Thompson Brown, with Lieutenant 
An<i"fl of the Second Howitzers, at the time detached as adjutant, 
had ridden to the iVont with the hope of l)ein<i; ahle to place some 
artillery in j)Osition. Imt had only succeeded in tindmg place for a 
single section. In his eagerness to hring moiv guns to hear, at a 
point ahout one fourth of a mile to the right of the turnpike. Col. 
Brown attended by no one but Lieut. Angel, advanced some hun- 
dred and fifty 3'ards in front of the Fifth Alabama regiment, and in 
doing so, came close to the enemy's skii-mishers. who were concealed 
by the brown brush. In the midst of such reconnoitreing. the silence 
was bi'oki'U by a volley of musketry tii'ed l)y the enemy's ]/ickets, 
ami Hrown fell. A l>ullet had. penetrated his forehead, k-illing him 
instantly. The beat of one of the warmest hearts, making a man's 
breast like a woman's, had ceased, and the In-ight outlook oi'a life, 
all atlame with generous and manly hopes, had fallen (pieiicdied. 
The sword presented to him liy those Howitzers, who under his 
orders had tiri'd tlie tii'st, and ovei- his memory did afterwards tiro 
the last shot in the war, (dung to him as he fell. He died with har- 
ness on his back, worthy his father's son. 

Before daylight Gordon had discovered that his lelt overla])])ed 
the enenn^'s right, and liy scouts and ])ersoiud examinal ion, he found 
that the enemy did not sus])ect his presence. He was therefore led 
to believe, that he could desti'oy that jtortion of the I'nion army by 
a Hank movement, and almost from the rising until thegoingdown 
ot' the sun he urgi'd such a movement. It was the same military 
eye. whi(di on the 12lh of May at Spotsylvania Courthouse, devised 
the means to relieve the salient of t he crushing ])ressui'e oi CJi'ant's 
columns. I'ut owing to the report of oui- cavalry, that a column 
was threatening our h'ft. and to the belief, that Burnside's cor))s was 
in rear of the Hank on whi(di the atta(d< was suggested, I'^well and 
Karly concurred in deeming it impolitic to <lo as Cordon ])ro])osed. 
Hut towards the close of the day these objections seemed no longer 
to exist, and the movement was ordered. 

About sunilown Cordon moved out. and found the enemy, as he 
expected, totally unprepared. The tirst troojts I'nconntered Avere 
caught with their guns stacked, and tied jn-ecijiitately. Brigade 
atler lirigade was broken to pieces before any formation could be 



86 

made. The woods Avcrc strewed witli the enemy's dead and wounded. 
A number of prisoners were captured, among them Generals Sey- 
mour and Shalcr. The Sixth Arni}^ Corps was broken and smitten 
with panic. Johnston's brigade (which had arrived that morning 
from Hanover Junction) was thrown in the rear of (Jordon's, and 
subsequently Pegram's was moved to his assistance. The plan 
origiiu^lly proposed by Gordon had been to move out one or two bri- 
gades, place them immediately on the enemy's flank, move rapidly 
down his lines, and, as we cleared the front of each of our brigades 
or divisions, to have these move out and join in tlu' attack, so that 
we would have a constantly inci-easing force, attacking a constantly 
decreasing enemy, placed under the disadvantage of having con- 
stantly to change his front to meet the flank movement. How far 
results realized expectation may be learned from our old acquaint- 
ance, the correspondent of the New York World. This corres- 
pondent being blessed with an eye for the picturesque, writes as 
follows : 

"The smoke of the battle built a grand canop}- overhead, beneath 
which the grand army of freedom prepared to rest. Generals 
Grant and Meade had retired to their tents, (^uiet reigned, but 
duriiig the reign of quiet, the enemy Avas forging a thunderbolt. 
* * * The forged thunderbolt was sjied by a mastei-. A wild 
rebel yell away to the right. We knew they had nmssed and 
were charging. We waited for the volley with which we knew 
Sedgwick would meet the onset. We thought it was but a night 
attack to ascertain if we had changed our j^osition. We were mis- 
taken: it was nioi-e. They meant .to break through, and they did. 
On Sedgwick's extreme right lay the Second brigade, Third divi- 
sion of his corps, under General Seymour, wlio had been assigned 
to it I)u1 two days before. The brigade is new to the Sixth corps, 
and is known as the Milroy brigade, connecting on the left of Sc}''- 
mour by Slialer's.and then Mills" brigade, the latter being a brigade 
of Getty's division that had not been sent to Hancock. These 
troops wei'c at woi-k eiili-enching when they were fallen ujion. 
The enemy came down like a tori'enl. i-oiling and dashing in liv- 
ing waves, and flooding up against the whole Sixth coi-ps. The 
main line stood like a rock-; not so the extreme right. That flank 
Avas instantly and uttei-ly turned. The rebel line was the longer, 
and sunned ai'ound ScvniOur's brigade, tidcMl over it and tlii'ough 



87 

it. l>e:i( a<:;:un.st Shuler's. and bore away liis right regiments. All thifi 
done in le.ss than ten minutes. Perhaps, Seymour's men, seeing 
their pickets running back, and hearing the shouts of the rebels, 
who had charged with all their chivaliy, were smitten with a 
panic, and standing on no ordci- of going, went at once, and, in an 
incredible short time, maile their way through a mile and a half of 
woods to the Plank Hoad in the rear. They reported, in the frantic 
nianiici' usual to stampeded men, the entire coi'ps broken. Grant, 
as m Hancock's case, <iid not believe it. But when three of Sedg- 
wick's statf rode into army headquarters separatel}" and stated how 
they bad ridden from Sedgwick's to kec]) Seymour's n\en to their 
work, and had been borne back by the panic, and had at last seen 
Sedgwick and Wright hard to the front, working like Trojans to 
hold the wavering line, the situation appeared more critical. * * 
The Sixtli corps tiag comes in. Where is the Sixth corps' chieltian? 
A dispatch received. John Sedgwick safe; Wright safe. ThcvSixth 
cor]>s hold a strong line; only Seymour's and a pai't of Shaler's 
brigade have been In'oken. The enemy can do nothing more. The 
Sixth cro])s ])roper lu\s not lost its ])ristine glory. Compelled to 
withdraw under orders, aftei' the defection of its riglit, it is still 
invincible — is now and ever shall be. * * That Cieneral (Jrant 
can lay claim to a success over his adversary will be evident to the 
public, when it will learn in a day or two the ultimate object of the 
movement of our army, which will be realized, notwithstanding 
the tlesperate interference of the enemy." CJordon has ground for 
the assertion. "It (be nu)vement had been made in the morning, 
as I desired, it is not too much to say that we would have 
destroyed (Jrant's army." Not till daylight on tlie 7th, when the 
whole ot' Marly's division, and a ])art of .lohnson's wei*e thrown for- 
ward, on Sedgwick's al>andoned line, so as to occupy a part of his 
abandoned works, on the right of the road diverging to the Gor- 
manna l-'oi'd l{oa<l. and leaving in our I'car bis woi'ks on the left of 
that road — not till then, did we realize the Itdl extent of our sue 
cess. Twice that ilay another Chancellorsville was in oui" hands, 
and twice it dro]>i»e(l. 

The Trihune letter, dated Wilderness, May 7th, says: "Sedg- 
wick's aflair last night has in nowise disconcerted the plans of our 
leaders, de]>ressed their ho]ie. or impaired the efficiency of their 
men. It was but a tlisastrous episo<le. ' ^leade's report has this: 



88 



"Just l)ofbiv ilai'k the enemy moved a C()iisiileral)le foree around 
the right tianl': of the Sixth eorps, held 1)}' Eiekett's division, and 
in conjunction witii a demonstration in front, succeeded in forcing 
the division hack in some confusion, making ]>risoners of (ienerals 
Seymour and Slialer. This suhstiintialiy ended the hattle of the 
Wihlerness." The London Timrs of May 25th, m alhision to the 
series of hattles of wliicli tlie Wilderness was the lirst. and hefore 
the details of the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse had been 
received, makes this assertion: "Tt would not be impossil)le to 
match the i\-sults of any one day's battle with stoi-ii's IVoin the 
Old World; l)ut never, we should say, were five such l)attles com- 
])resse<l into six successive days/' The Times is amused at the 
thought that the Americans are ]n'ol)ably proud of their pre-emi- 
nence for slaughter. The loss of the Northern army on the 5th 
and (ith of May, in killed and wounded, and exclusive of prisoners, 
was 1)7,71)7— a list <lerived IVom the Surgeon-(ieiu'i-ars OHice. See- 
ing that his cavalry and artillery are. witli little exception, not 
included in the count, it is not too much to say. that Lee killed, or 
])laced /iors(Iucot)ihaf,oi\e ol't he enemy for eveiy man he hadeiigaged. 
Had the i)olicy oi" wearing out by attrition been resorted to earlier, 
the South could have stood it longiM- than the X(n-th. The ])olicy 
itself is not strictly original wit h our fa\<>rcd lan<l. In their bel- 
ligei-ent i-elations with the English, the Chinese announced them- 
selves invincilile. I)ccause they said, it was sim]tly im]»ossibIe for 
Ciiv.at IJritain (o kill them off as ra])idly as they were born. The 
policiy over hei'c was very near receiving the ('oup de grace at the 
very tirst throw; very near also to achieving moi-e memorable 
results at the Hrst throw. Mail liOngstreet been a few minutea 
later, Lee's army would, or, ;it least, should have been defeated. 
Jlad 1k' been :i few minutes earlier, or not l)een wounded, (irant 
would have been driven across the river, in the ignominious defeat 
oi" his predecessors. Von know Jjandseer's ])ictiiiH' of detiance. 
The Monarch of the (lien brouglit to hay, with his forefoot on the 
tirst hound, is grinding him in thcsand — the ln^aiiliful head with 
the wari'ior-horn and tlie victor-glance, lifte<l in free, fearless fash- 
ion to the pack, which has paused to breathe.or.it may be.mana.Hi- 
vre. So stood Lee, on (he evening of the sixth, afti'i- Death had 
thrown his long shadow l)ehind the trees. To bori'ow the word of 
a l^''rench general, he had ma<le (Jrant '■swalli>w his sword u]) to 



89 

the hilt." lla'l not tlir (liiinMisioiis of the thfoat been equal to 
three siicli sword-;, it had never hreatlied a<i;:iin. Grant had g-ained 
nothini;- and had h)st heavily. When he turned to make for Spot- 
sylvania ( "ourtiiouse, thoun-h he had ])ossession of the direet route, 
and had ihestai't. lie was ai^'ain foiled, as he contirnuMl to \)v in 
every suhse(iueiit atten)])t to i;'et hi'tween Lee's army and I'ieh 
iiion<l. 

After the Moody exercise of the 12th of -May, iiraiit discerned 
that he had need to be somethino- more than the climax of a cigai", 
and forthwith enlarged his edge to the l)ack of '•all thesummer" — 
which was immediately perceived to be as clear an instance of the 
moral sublime, as the original project of -'hanging on for a day or 
two." Foi' a day or two it seemed to him ex])edient to hang off. 
He says in his report, "The Kith. 14th. loth. Kith, 17th, and ISth 
of May were consumed in uuuueuvreing and awaiting reinforce- 
ments from Washington" — the CJeneral who nevei' maiueuvred! 

When, on the first of Ai)ril, ISiJo. the ('(mfedei-ate line at Peters- 
burg ''Stretched until it broke." and lune days afterwards Lee sur- 
rendered his eight thousand muskets to the successful foe, the 
incessant Jeopardy and vigil of eleven months, the mai'ching and 
countei'uuirhing. days ol'danger and nights of wasting, want. ex])0- 
sure. exhaustion had done their work, (irant's bayonets, also, had 
done their work: yet not ly simply -hanging on for a day or 
two," on this or any other line. Spring vioK-ts changed to sum- 
mer roses: summer roses passed into the crimson-yellow forest 
light, which sets its bow in flu" cloud of Indian ^uninier. The pas- 
sion flower wept and passed. The violet breath came over a second 
spring, while (iraiit was hanging on his -'day or two." 



VI. 

The situation at one time resemliled that of one year I'arlier. when 
Hooker's right was turned two miles above ('haiicellorsville, and 
three divi-ions hurled upon a far stronger position, from which it 
miglit have been impossible to dislodge the enemy, had lime been 
given him to recover from his first sur]^rise, but when no time was 
o-iven him. The bones of .lackson turned in their eollin. as the tram]t 



90 

of tinned men revei'berated on the tield of his splendor. It needs 
some modification ^ that old proverb, "Tlie dead lion is more than 
the living dog." This man cannot be left out, in the enumeration 
of the forces fighting for us on the sixth. Dead he fought, nay, 
triumphed. IFancock's apprehensions of a flaidc movement on his 
left, all through the morning of the sixth, apprehensions, continu- 
all}' awakened and allayed, and "paralyzing a number of his best 
troops, who otherwise would have gone into action at a decisive 
point"' — these were Jackson's deeds on this very ground surviving 
him. The memory of Jackson a year before was the sleeping lion, 
the stroke of whose paw was momentarily expected. 

How all things are granted to the sincere and earnest nature has 
been inctt'aceably stamped here. "lie that nins may read." Here 
he whose life Avas the consecration of valor unto duty, hallowed 
the spot on which he fell, and made it, most truly, sacred soil ; made 
the Wilderness his lion breast. For a man to manifest so much in 
the flesh, the Genius of the time luul said, "J will seek him among 
the conventionally obscure : I will find him among the constitution- 
ally weak. On him will I lay the weight of my hand, and then 
wdl 1 demand of him tiie fullness of his stature — a hand of hard- 
ship, whi(di shall be like the weight al)()ve the arcdi, keei)ing it in 
place." And so he grew a firm. ])lain soldiei'. not to lie twisted, and 
not to i)e thwarted. The world ailiuii'es when the five talents make 
themselves ten, but the f ruly grarni issue is the struggle of the soli- 
tar}^ talent to repeat itself In after days he became noted for his 
celerity, but if came of i-egnlai'ly accelerated motion originally slow. 
It was a swiftness born less of vivacify than of intensity. Ilis 
wheel was a swoop as from an u'rie in the nmjestic de])ths — a wing 
swimming u]ion dcjifli. and a minatory lieak like the eagle's. It is 
moiH' clear hencefoilb. what is meant by tlie "race to the swift" — 
swiftness slowly gatlu'i'ed, launched from a divine de])fb. like light- 
ning. Here was a deep, silent growth, ripening in stillness. 

A .lackson. tei-ribly in earnest, dwelf feri'ibly alone very often. 
Let us well understand, and lay if to heart, that the visible universe 
frowns on such a man, that the woi'ld of a]ipearance is in arms 
aii'ainst bini. lill be eml the con(piei'()i' of the woi'ld. ''Find your 
advantage in a liffle latifude: only upon condif mn that you trim 
here, are derelict there, shall you suceee(|. with my permission," 
says the world. "Su])])ress t his scni])le." says one. "I)o my dirty 



91 

work," .sa3's luiotiicr. Of many phases in this man's life, could wc 
see them, we should say ^^ Ecce in Deserto!" Face to face with the 
touu^h fact of existence, on the one hand, and the guile of the jilau- 
sible on the other, whose arch snare for the straitened is illusive 
haste, he learns that which is the beginning of all wisdom, the 
immortal tlifference between truth and lies. The field of dece|)tion, 
including self-deception, greatl}^ the worst, perceptibly narrows. 
The sense of reality deepens in him. especially of the great unseen 
realities, on which he must forever lean, when he joins the weak 
things of the world to do fearless battle with the seeming strong. 
In common speech, we say of one farther-reaching, acuter than 
his fellows, "He sees through a mill-stone." Dim, material senses 
obstruct not his wider, profounder vision. What avb call strength 
of mind portrays itself in this. The non-realizing sense of truth," 
of such truth as is avowed, and even believed to be believed, is the 
great source of disorder in this world. That "love of money is the 
root of all evil." in some cases, is not quite clear. There are so many 
evils, and so many roots. But that love of or subjection to, appear- 
ances, the captivity ot the sense to the flash of the present, the 
charmful or the iniiiatory immediate, lies at the bottom of all, is 
apt to be very clear; and this, it may be, is what the original 
means — money, visible value, visible power, "the guinea's stamp" 
to that i^tfect, the "imag(^ and sii])erscription " to that effect, the 
form of a fair instant, or of a frowning one. The glittering bait 
hangs full in sight. The I'eward of self-re.spect and self-sacrifice is 
invisible. With what tirniiiess ainl decision Jackson made his 
choice, in the fullness of time, was tliiindered to the woi'ld. The 
shallow, mid-sunwner brook is t lirown out of channel, by each recur- 
ring, trivial obstruction, and wlii<hever way the wind blows, shivers 
into commotion and ninhilion. .laekson's life is borne forward, on 
the silent, strong life-currents, wherein, after sore struggle, he is 
destined to l»ecoine one of the world's strong swimmers. Well for 
Jackson, well for mankind, so in need of great examjiles! 'i'his or 
that sweet wish of the Itosoni. or l)i'illiant seeming "Northwest 
passage to Knjoynu'nt." was but an ap])earance thrown before an 
eager-hearted man to give him self-mastery. Ijong since it had 
"consumed away. Ukv as it were a moth fretting a garment." and 
his example reimiins, a possession forever. The Xorlhwest busi- 
ness, with its midniglit sun. and tires of o-em-work and gold kindU'd 



92 

lliorein, ;il last is anchored lo an iceberg-. Like the iceberg, it 
melts ill tile I'ay wliicli causes it to glitter; a inai'igobl. dviiig for 
the sun, and dying by it. 

A great man's course, on bis way to greatness, is well Icnown to 
be the greatest oi" all ocean (diarts. In tins case, a great sailor, 
having little or nothing of the autobiogi'aphic turn, has left scant 
record of bis soundings on the coast, as well as subsequent log- 
Ixiard. He is fairly launched on the great deep, as a flag-ship of 
mankind and mastci- of the stoi-m, before his sailing quality 
receives due notice. AVere it not for the steej) wave he' put 
behind, we would have no measure of his buffetings. As a reve- 
lation of the conscience of the South, by which the poor man of 
the South was actuated and })ervaded. and as a testimony due to a 
cause, which l)egot such a man and his example, 1 hold u]) this 
man to you for this instant. J hold him up as an example, sorely 
needed at this time, ol one whose stivngth was strengthened by 
misfortune, whose life was one long wrestle with adversity, a 
choice of dithcnlties at every ste]), and the pursuit of high aims 
over them; a life, therefore. whi(di had to derive ]»ower from 
defeat, diligently note the cause of failure, and see that the same 
did iioi recur, often as it must recur before (juitc van(|iiished. I 
hold liim up as one who leanuMl, not with less hindi-ance than 
others, to curb his s])iril within the iron links of the iiie.\oral)le; 
who from the linu' of this first and greatest victory, atfer which 
otlu'i' \ictories were t'asier. encounliTeil life and life's imjirisoning 
enchant ineiits. with drawn sword, which he held to by the sign of 
the Cross; in which sign he coihiiicihmI ; uiidei' whicdi a world of 
sorcery cowH'fed; under which the world, .Mepliisloplieles. and the 
Prince of 1 >arkiiess cowered. I bold him up as oiii'. who appears 
Ujion the scene (st'cms to have l)een ])Ossible then), just as our 
l)ook of.hidges. or. if you ])lease, our age of the Scipios was 
closing, and on the tlireshhold of the ])resent iiiii\i'rsal sti'w. In 
his lime the forces were at work, which were to shift the golden 
into the iiillated pa)»er age, ami put upon the boar<ls. the book, or 
better, the bladder, of Railroad Kings, and ballot-stuHed sover- 
eignty <)\' the people. Against these he was (o tight, and die 
fighting, tor the |pi-eseiil, it would seem, unpi"e\ ailingly . .\l>ove 
all. ami as all in all. 1 hold biiii up. as a soldier of the truth, to his 
best ability to see it. Man is what he has been defmeil to be, a 



93 

reliicious animal, in proportion as lie strives to know the ti'uth, 
and. as a se(jiu'iice. to pert'orin it. By vin-lit conduct founded on 
right views the healtliy mind is satistied, in no other way. Jack- 
.son's views of truth were circumscrihcd, as those of ail men are, 
by limitations ol" time and eireumstance; but he has this indultita- 
lile synijitom of a healthy mind: that his use for beliefs was to 
ti-anslale them into [iractice. verity them iu act; that for him faith 
was an act. a lliini;- not so much to talk l)y, as to walk by: that he 
lived by his belief as he did by his (hiily l>rea<h The hi<ih idea of 
a spiritiud universe, overai'chini!,- and overi'ulinii- the material frame 
ol' thini;-s. as tlu' eternal substance of which the lattei- is but the 
shadow cast in time — this veritalde real presence in religion, with- 
out whicdi all else is as dross, was foi" him a liviua;, ever-|)i-esent 
fact. The ditfrrence between men. the difference l>etween minds, 
the ditferenee between lives, is in this. "To be or not to l)e?'" as 
Hamlet i)uts it. "that is the (pu'stion," a]iplical>le to much else 
than mere self-slaughter of the llesli. I>ut against which voluntary 
'■not to be," in every as])ecf of it, "the everlasting hath fixed his 
caiKUi." "To be" is to "tak'c ai'uis against a sea of troubles;" 
undaunted to oppose them, in a world whose wave forever falls as 
hammer, when not beaten into anvil: whei'c not to be victor is to 
be vanipMsiuMl. Ft is a (piestion which, in all aspects, .lack'son 
deci<les with great emphasis in the alHrniative. The iron lirow of 
duty. whi(di early tills him with deep awe and veneration, grows 
majestically l»eautiful in time, and he learns to look ujion it with a 
self-consecrating love and faith. .Vever did man more decisively 
renounce tor himself, in this life, the ])leasurt's. avidities, and shows 
whieh could not follow him to the next. Ijooking on the tii-m, 
compressed lines ot' his face, and the gvay, unyielding gaze which 
answei's ours, almost with the fixed determination of a thing of 
steel — a most unshaken eye. Imt through which jiathetically 
glances the touch of a kindly light, as of the light of the ever- 
lasting (rospel, Itreaking through a woi-ld of ditHcult turmoil, sor- 
row, and long-enduring hope deferred — looking on his still, solemn 
face, one feels as though the iron brow had passed into this human 
one. 

ITere was a man to give the few the confidence of numy. IFerc 
was one to Ik- a leader of that Confederate might, which, without 
music, without decorations, far remove<l from the glitter of "pomp 



94 

and cireuinstance," in huni;-er tuid in rags, saw gloiy and duty, as 
the Puritan saw his God, throuo;h the bare walls of his nieetinir- 
house. His men were partakers of his stuff. He orders a squad 
to resist a column. The men ol)ey, nothing doubting. Jackson 
orders, Jackson knows. The cry "Jackson!" breaks from the 
enemy, as he rises out of the ground behind them and their works. 
His name doubles his ranks. A little one becomes a thousand. So 
it is with discernment of time and circumstance. At Samosierra, 
the Spaniards planted sixteen jneces of artillery in the neck of the 
pass, so as to sweep the whole of the steep ascent. But Napo- 
leon rides into the mouth of llie ))ass. and seizing the mist of 
the morning for a casque, orders the Polish cavalry of his guard 
to charge through the vapor to the battery. The first squadron 
is mowed down. Over them ride the remainder, sword in hand, 
up the mountain; Spanish infantry tiring the while, on right and 
left, in lines one above another. When the Poles have sabred the 
gunners they have routed an army. The military critic feels 
bound to say, that the charge, -'viewed as a simple militar}- opera- 
tion, was extravagantly rash." Thus substance disperses shadows, 
and stamps the ditferencc between multitude and force. In the 
manifold field of life the royal eye, through the veil of circum- 
stance, distinguishes the essential; seeing well the things around, 
is dazzled by none. To be daunted l)y none is next to, and conse- 
quent U])<iii tliis. J'he knowledge of how to be strong, where the 
main issue lies, is the knowledge of all fields and all life. 

A man who makes realities his aim, and appearances his disdain, 
is sti-ange, and set apart, accordingly. Not undcn- one Dispensation 
only, but under all Dispensations, God's people are "a peculiar 
peo]>le." 

To live in the sense of a higher accountability than any fulmina- 
tions of this earth, in the; throng of plausibiUties to be genuine, of 
hypocrieies to be devout, to be retiring among the Pharisees, faith- 
ful among the ci'avens, is eccentric necessarily. How should it be 
otherwise, with the carnal heart in its existing state of enmity? Is 
not the tfue man Itonnd to sa}^ to .specious sham, -'Get thee behind 
me"? The ivsolute, genuine natui-es are the ones, at last, from 
Avbicli othei-s bori'ow exisk'iiee, arouiul which others rally. The 
faillitul few, obscure in the world, but great in their callings, are 
the shouldi-rs whi(di move the world. The heroes will always say 



95 



to the trimmoi-s, -We will heiii* the hruiit, and leave 3'ou the plun- 
der of the tield" — the ]>leusaiit race ol' trimmers, the plausible, the 
supple. Plausible decorum, equally amiable and equally inditt'erent 
to all |)ei-sons and all opinions, is not the stuff' of which Jacksons 
are made. The world says of the .lackson, "Jfe is narrow." But 
better to cleave a path for others to follow in, the narrows which 
arc deep, than the expanse wliich is broad, liecauso it is sliallow. 
Jlow are you to seduce, how intimidate such a man, when for him 
your menace, or your bril)e. is l)ut one more a})])earance which ho 
knows how to despise ? 

Such a man was Stonewall Jackson; a resolved, taciturn man, of 
decided, aquiline, rather uncomfortable ways; the more inexpugna- 
ble, that they were sternly encased, in a life of prayer, as in a shirt 
of nuul. Xot a man to be popular, it is plain; not one to swim 
pleasantly with the current; one rather to cling faithfully to the 
rock in the midst thereof, refusing to be swe])t away, lie cannot 
wax himself to men and things. Ue is sincere, adheres without 
nieri-enary glue, or parts company. Vet what in history so touch- 
ing, as the almost childlike reverence of Jackson for the real majesty 
of Lee? It is one of the highest praises of the latter, that in })ro- 
portion as his sul)ordinates were great, he was great to them. For 
one. I never see that jiicture of Lee and Jackson, in their last ride 
together by the Aldi'ich House, without thinking that such a meet- 
ing is, in itself, one of the best and sweetest pictui'es of how great- 
ness, of whatever rank, is the boi-n bj'other of every other. At the 
two extremes of wealth and poverty we j)i-oduce these two. The 
extremes meet, not in hate but in love, and, the facts deserving it, 
mutual ivspect and admii-ation. The two ai'e blent together, by 
virtue of that which is inherent and independent in tluMu, by virtue 
of iieing the men they were. ^lerit. whether it descended from the 
highest, or ascended from the lowest, was free and equal in that 
South before the war. 

The day was at Jiand which Avas to draw the recluse from his 
retreat, and witness his coronation Itefoi'e a gazing and a gaping 
world: wlun lu- who had sown to reality reaped n^alities. '^riie 
shadows felt in him their substance, when the\- heard his word of 
command, amid the thunders of the ca|ilains. The world within 
liim was gi'i'aler than the world without him. Did enemies encom- 
pass. an<l storm in upon liiin','' With his right hand, he smote them 



96 

to ruins. TTo docs the utmost, who standini-- on himself, stands true 
to himself, and therefore not fiilsely but faithlully to others. He is 
the givatest, who having most to overcome, overcomes it. All 
honor to hiin, who li'om the lowly made himself the lofty, from 
the feehlc made himseli' the mighty, made the one talent ten, and 
a woi'ld all hostile to his weakness, all vassal to his greatness. 
Herein the Wilderness, it was, that he, who had put all other ene- 
mies under foot, over death also rose victorious: folded the banner 
of victory, for time and for eternity, inextricably about him as he 
fell., 'nuit etIuM* of memory and imagination, which throws its 
purple on the ]»ast. floated from liis shoulders as we gazed. The 
shadow of a cloud ]iassed over him. behind which the sun was 
shining. It might have been said at his grave, as the Earl of ^Mor- 
ton said at that of John Knox, "lie lies there who never feared the 
i'ace of man." lie rests there, with a star. Valor's star. u|)Oii his 
breast: for him henceforth, a star of peace. He himself is now 
become a star, on the great bosom of Eternity. His long warfare 
is over: '-he has fought the good tight." The sore conflicts and 
bruises under the straitened yoke of time, its whips and its scorns, 
will gall liim nevermore. IFe can survey them unmoved now, from 
that last bosom wherein he rests, and thr iH'venges of time are 
furled. 

Beautiful effect of a true lii'e! beautiful event of our century! 
the story of Jackson crossing the Atlantic, and spreading among 
generous Rnglish hearts, comes liack to us, in the sj)eaking image 
of a hero. English gentlemen, stamping, in ini])erishal»le art, the 
imperishable idea of a Jackson. ])lace it on this Square, a monu- 
ment to him and to them, and to an artist worthy of his subject. 

'■lie has lost his left arm; i have lost my right." were the gene- 
rous words of Lee when he heard of Jackson's wounds. The blood 
of all tlu' heroes flowed in those words over those woun<ls. It was 
as if, for the monieiit. like the patriarch of old. Lee had reversed 
his bunds, and made the dexter'ous lieutenant of his left his active 
right, and the less a<lroif rjongstreet the virtual lelf. Hut to sit 
on the right hand, nr the left hand, of so mmdi glory, were fame 
enough. .\n<l now it is given to Longslreef. in a similar move- 
ment, not far from the same spot, by another tire from our own 
men, to be felleil in the front of triumjdi. It was his last, as it was 
his greatest battle. I well remember the ileep, respectful silence. 



97 

with whiili tlic First Howitzers pressed to the side of the 
road, as a while ainhuhuiee passed by, Unowini; well whom it l)ore. 
Had lioiinst reel's wound ])i-oved also mortal, his niche of fame 
stood ready for him. Weeping Commonwealths would have accom- 
panied his bier. The chivalry and beauty of a mourning- land 
woidd have been coinpanions at his tomb. His cypress would have 
been a lauivl. [jongstreet survived for (piite other destinies, and 
so lelt Jackson — alone in his glory. 

1 said in (he beginning, that oui' whole past had lieeu cut into 
clear, tirm character by the chisel of war. Kqually true is it, that 
the future, and our bearing therein, will be the most effectual com- 
mentary on our conduct in the war. The future will (U^termine, 
whether the proportions of that day shall fall about our people 
like a decent robe, or whether posterity shall turn sceptic, in 
applying the armor of a giant past to the body of a living dwarf 
They who have exclusively the past to be proud of, in the accumu- 
lation of their vouchers, provide a measure for their defection and 
decadence. Such have been likened to potatoes, by tar whose 
best part is under ground. An inordinate Irishman, tracing his 
genealogy, paused in the course of his memoirs to say, "Here the 
world was created." But a not wholly incommensurable appetite 
can a])pease itself, as Chesterfield entertained himself, by placing, 
among the portVaits of his ancestors, two old heads inscribed, 
••Adanide Staidio^ie' and '' ICve de Stanho])e." "Everv man," says 
Sancho Pan/.a. "is the son of his own works." Perhaj)s the most 
sorrowful fate which can overtake a people is when a tradition of 
old greatness, in truth the mocker}', is accepted as the solace of 
downfall and humiliation. The ])i'<)ud past is a robe of scorn to 
the uneC[ual present. 

Tln'i-e are some who dispose of the whole matter of the war. in 
a very otl-hand manner. "What did we make by it?" they ask : 
conscious that tlu- [)ecunuiry returns are in a state of great back- 
wardness. It is as if one were to ask of Milton's great poem. 
" How much (lid he get for if.''" And yet heroic writing is a small 
thing by tlu- side of heroic living and dying. William Attig, 
engiui'cr upon the IMiiladelphia and Erie railroad, with the air- 
brakes on. ami his hand upon the throttle, kept off death from 
every other, while it steamed down upon himself. Was the sub- 
scription for his widow what he made by if.'' Those three hundred 



98 

Spartans who, on a snnimoi' niornini;-. in the passes ol' Thcrniojiyhi", 
•'sat coinbinii- their hjni;- liair for deatli"' — what did tliey make by 
it? What did .loan of Are nuike hy it, with the Inquisition cap 
upon her head, burned to death tor a witch, her ashes thrown into 
the Seine? What diil Walhiee make l»y it. I)etrayed. beliea(h'(l, his 
body (|uartere(l and impaled on London Bridge, a green garhuid 
on his head to crown him onthiw king? Slie seateil tlie descen(hvnt 
of Saint Louis Ibi- ihi'ee eentui'ies on Ins tlirone. She and lier 
nuiiden sword, slie and lier consecrated banner, slie and her l)eauty 
risen from luu- ashes. |)ure as tlu> lilies of France anil magniticent 
as the ordlamme. make the I-' ranee of to-day l)eautiful to Krench- 
men. And Wallace! lie and the Scots who bled with him. made 
the indi'pendeiit mind of Seotlanil too strong for any subjugation; 
they made hci- inde|)endeiice real, and her subjugation superficial, 
and left ibe name of Wallace "a wild flower all over his dear 
eounlr}-." They sowed for the immortal gods. Defeat for duty 
is l>ettei' than victory over it. yiy iielief is that great things ai'e 
never dout' for what can be made l)y thom. Their returns are uot 
contaiiu'd in such sordid measure. ne]Mitation wrung from the 
cannon's mouth is not a l)ubbK'. 

Theiv have l)ei'n latter-day ))atriots who have avowed their 
intention to ••mak'c treason odious; " no insiguilicant intent, on 
their ])ari. considering how many of earllfs greT:itest have con- 
spired to make it glorious, when the "treason " in ([uestion has 
meant resistance to authority believed to l)e unlawful, and known 
to be injurious, which is the definition in the latter-da}' case. Our 
earlier Presidents called it '-obedience to God.'" The Toiw Alison 
can ""ive lessons in liiieralism to the latter-day variety. •'The 
feelings of mankind," he writi-s. '-have never stigmatized mere 
treason as a crime. " .\nd again, speaking of the ("omit Uathiany: 
"History must ever niourn the death upon the scaffold of any 
num of noble (duiracter, com1)atting tor what in sincerity he be- 
lieved to lie the cause of duly." The feelings of iiiaiikiiid and our 
earlier Presidents have a great deal in (heir favor. First, to take 
all pains to know aright what our duty is, and then to fight for it 
in all weather, is what we are here to <lo. Meiv concinerors who 
have taken no such pains are not our Judges, but our visitation for 
not more warily and desperately fighting. 'The murderer has 



99 

but his hour.'' said Lamartiue of the late of the Duke crEno-hien; 
"his victim has all eternity." 

Truth, it UKiy 1)C well to state, has uever l»eeu baslilled uor 
carried hy coui) d'etat. AVith what a satire, does accusing and 
avenging time laugh to scorn the executions of the hour. In some 
English engravings, under the heads of Sir Thomas More, Sir Wal- 
ter Ivaleigh. Russcl. and Sidney, there is engraved an axe, to sig- 
nity that in tlieii- day these were beheaded. But how fares it with 
their rfiioun ? Is that heheaded ? Or is it consecrated b}^ the 
nol»ili(y of a peculiar dearness? Tliere is no face, in the Corcoran 
Art CJallery. before Mhicli moi'c reviM-ent footsteps pause thivn that 
of Charlotte Corday. The ])en. mightier than the sword of the 
executioner, is in her hands, with which she has written. '-The 
crime, not tlie scatfold, makes the shame."' What a sure hand it 
is! -'Mere treason" in this case is not the crime. The ci'ime is to 
be "a savage wild beast," (to l)c ]\rarat, Vamidn peuple,) feeding 
on human heads, who, God l)e ju-aised ! has been slain by this 
Norman girl. She stands behind her grated window, through 
which she looks, with a still, dee]) pathos, piercing all hearts, from 
the blue heaven of eyes whose sun is setting fast, whoso earthly 
sun, indeed, in seeming, still trembling on the horizon, in reality, 
alrea<ly. is below it. leaving a setting sun's light u]»()n the face. A 
look of eternity is gazing far over this restless eurth into eternity. 
With her last hold upon earth clasped u|)on her jirison grate, one 
almost fancies the thorn halo upon llu^ In-ow leant thereon, which 
the iron seems to enter; a halo, whose radiance 'down-glancing 
bestows, by a two-fold but not divided light, tenderness and gran- 
dour. The warmth of a swoetlj'-intrepid soul hovers, for the last 
time, upon a breast which her neckerchief not quite conceals. The 
bravest heart in Franco boats under the fairest bosom. She lives 
on canvas, an image of the soul, passionately, but invincibly, 
gazing through the bars of its prison-house in the flesh, as a bird 
imprints his Itreast-foathers against the imprisoning wires of his 
cage. Wo. in America, send for this warm, sweet soul of Xor- 
raandy. and j»laco it in the front of art. 

What is it makes the real odiousncss of treason? Whether it bo 
high treason, whether it bo petit treason; whether it be against 
.society, against marriage, or any other relation of contract or 
affection; is not the essence of it, that which makes it detestable, 



100 

tliis: that it is ])orti(l_v, btitrayui. u breach of faith that is owed 
and pretended; in a word, that is treacherous? The essence of it 
is falseness, an alliance or allegiance Avhich is an acted lie. The 
definition is as old as the Mirror, and older; treason happens only 
between allies; arises where there is a subsisting natural, civil, or 
spiritual relation. A public and authoritative announcement, that 
a voluntary alliance, between i'rce and equal contracting common- 
w^ealths, shall subsist no longer, is not an act of treachery, espe- 
cially, if the reason for revoking on one side be the practical and 
statutory abrogation on the other. It is the reverse of treacher- 
ous; it. is putting another on his guard, saying to him, --Take 
notice, Avc are no longer allies; we are aliens." The lloman word 
is j^roditio — the giving forth of an appearance which has no back- 
bone of realit}'. One living in the guise of friendly association 
and confidence, furtively stabs you under the fifth rib. Open war 
the brave man acce]itsas his discij)line. Insidious, perfidious guile 
he is less a])t to prepare for. Washington fighting at the head of 
the rebels against George TTT is a true man. Arnold fighting in 
the ranks of the loyal for George 111 is a traitor. It may be 
admitted that deceit is a terrible evil. Closely considered, and 
including self-deceit, it is the sum and substance of all that is most 
pernicious. It is the Devil's own image. As we live, there is but 
one thing to do with it — to beat it down under our feet, and not 
comfort it when fallen. Would you know whether a deed is vile 
or not? Ask yourself the question, whether the traits of it are 
cowardice and lies, treachery or poltroonery to what is professed 
and believed; in either case hiding under a false ajipearance, the 
fearfulncss or the disguise of fact — tlie last a subtler, sometimes a 
coarser form of fear. In proportion as these are the traits if is 
vile. In pi'opoi'tion as these are not, not. Are you willing for the 
light to shine upon youi- deetls, or must they be shrouded in dark- 
ness? is the ti'st. Man does walk l>y faith; hence the worst thing 
you can say of a man is that he is |)erfi(lious. diligently seems the 
thing he is not, and so betrays, b}' what be is. tin- confidence 
bestowed on what he seems. To be a man, with a man's sense of 
accountability, is one of the very greatest comman<lmriits. 

What, then, was the crime of the Southern States? Was if that 
after having reiterated in season, and out of season, shouting the 
same loudly from the lutuse-tops, that they would resume the 



101 

powers, conditioiiall}' granted bj^thcm to the General Govcrninent 
whenever the same shoukl be perverted to their injury, when the 
day of trial came they were recreant; was it this? Was it that 
alter havini;- affirmed, that they had i^iven their adhesion, not to a 
law hii!;her than the (constitution, nor lower than the Constitution, 
but to the Constitution, the whoh! Constitution, and nothing but 
the Constitution; and that whenever such ■• higher law " laid hold 
of the Government, they would let go; when the event happened, 
they swallowed their words; was it this? Xo, it was not this. 
Their otfence was, that to the uns]>eakab]e abomination of their 
enemies, they made good their words, would not e(|uivocate oath 
and conscience, did what they said they would do. .\nd how? 
In silence, in darkness, with Masonic secrecy and rites? Xo; this 
thing was not done in a corner. Tn l)roa<l day, State after State 
went to the ])olls to vote u])()n tiie peril and the duty of the hour. 
In In-oad day. their IJepresentatives assembled themselves in Con- 
ventions, and their proceedings in the daily press, that no man 
might be ignorant. In broad day. Senator after Senator rose in 
the Capitol, and said, •' Your Morrill tariff construction, your lobby 
and Jobl)ery construction, your States passing laws that the Consti- 
tution is a dead letter, your 'higher law' construction, is no law 
for us. and in the nature of things cannot be. -We agreed to 
form this Cnion,' you say. (irant that we agreed to form, at 
least. ///(.' [/nion. AVhat then? Did we agree that it should be 
al»solnte. irrevocalile. unappealal)le. not only for the generation 
agreeing. I>uf toi- all generations? Do miMi calling themselves 
republicans hold that we <iid? Why. a king can give no more 
than his own; may resign his own throne, if he like, but le.ss cer- 
tainly that of his otfspring. An<l you have the hardihood to say 
that we, equals contracting with etpuils — we who being solicited, 
entreated, assured, guai'anteed — gave our consent to certain condi- 
tions of I'nion upon the very construction on which we are now 
acting, that we thereby clasped a handcutf of steel upon our wrists 
forever? Wh3% the law is. that no contract shall last forever. 
Say that you found your right of action on a contract meant to be 
pei-petual, and the Su]ireme ( "ourt will laugh in your liice. Rightly, 
for what man, or what number of men. can so read the future as 
justly to fund the unborn of all time? Least of all should they 
maintain such a doctrine, who utterlv refuse to be bound them- 



102 

sclveis. Wc use the language of your own Webster, in prospect 
of the very case which has arisen, that 'a bargain broken on one 
side is broken on all sides,' and say you have broken the bargain 
on all sides. Fouilecn of your States having passed laws saying 
that the bargain shall be inoperative as to them, how can you 
expect it to be altogether sacred to us? We cannot bring you to 
our views, nor will we surrender the law to your discretion. If 
your consciences cannot bear the sin of suti'ering us to hold the 
slaves which you sold to us, we will relieve your consciences of all 
])articipation therein. You shall have no more concern in the mat- 
ter than in the institutions of Brazil. Saying good-bye to you, we 
will revive over ourselves the I'nioii our ancestors ordained ; 'the 
civil, the moral, the federal liberty,' for which Washington fought, 
for which Jefferson, Henry, and Mason insisted, and which Mar- 
shall and Hamilton (;onceded as a I'act. For this we mean to stand 
with the hazai'd of our lives. All outnumbered and outclaniored 
as wc are, God hcl]) us, we can do no other." Make the worst of 
this "treason," you can never make it other than numly, and frank, 
and true. Southern secession came, not to (k^stroy, but to fulfill. 

"Caught with arms in their hands." is what was said of us 
afterwards. And how else should braver men be "caught" than 
"with arms in their hands," when all that is dear to them, and all 
that should be dear to them, is assailed? Tt passes the ])ower of 
any statute to make this '-odious," save to the ]nisillaiumous and 
corru]>t. To fight manfully for your faith in right, is intrinsically 
not "odious"; it is very nearly the whole duty of man. We were 
bi"Ought to tlu^ ring, and the woi'ld has seen how we could dance. 

Undoubtedly there is a treason which is odious; being so, no 
statute, no verdict, no failure to impeach can make it otherwise. 
liCt no mail doulit tins. There is a treason which is deadly: being 
so. no ])h3'sic of legislation, and standing by it "under fire," can 
make it healthy; not the avowed, ojien treason to usur]»ation, not 
the treason of the glorious relu'ls who are followed by ■■ihe sweet 
remembrance of the just" — the jiarado.xical (reason which is true; 
not this. The deadly treason is caught, not with "arms in its 
lumds"; iuit with a smile on its lips, .l^ati'iots. who. w.ith unheard 
of love of country, l)end the bow of legislation, so as to make it 
sho(>t straight into their own pockets, these arethedeadly traitors; 
they who place votes -'where they will do most good." To their 



103 

country? No; to l>i\iik aoc-ounts Avhich they protest a<;'ain8t hav- 
ing to account for. The treason which Avalks by your side and 
thrives on your s])()liation. whicli i'roni liehind a niarhlc desk of 
HU])retnacy, or other '-inside track," knocks down hiw to the highest 
hiddei-. do you not see how haleful this poiislied. pUiusilde treason 
must l>e; how it changes the rod oC empire iiito a serpent: liow it 
makes of government a nest of serpents stinging the veius of the 
])e()pic on wlioni they fasten? TIjc detestahle treason is that which 
dips ill the same dish with you. and salutes willi a kiss: and now 
the treason whicli tlie buiklers rejected, the rebuihlers have made 
the coi'uer stone! They are not the most meet to make treason 
of any l<iiid odious, who have mack' fraud of e\-ery Iviud glorious. 
''CMear and I'ound dealing" in any dejiartment of life, even that of 
forcdtle resistance, is not the great danger to society. It is "the 
lie that sinUctli in. and settleth in it. that doth the hurt." Yes, the 
evil men of this worltl are not the ones wiio sincerely battle for 
their duty, but the insincere who do not. The betrayal of a great 
cause for pieces of silvei'did not ex]»ire in tlie tirst century, though 
the act of voluntary restoration does seem to have come to grief; 
else why has not ''the conscience fund" taken the currency ques- 
tion otl' our hands? 

No, latter-day pati-iots should give over their purpose to ''make 
treason odious." Somebody should remonstrate with them. To 
borrow the needi'd word, they will find it a most Herculean labor 
for very unherculean l>acks. The halo, which Washington and 
others have thrown around the name of rebel, (^which did a]>])ly to 
Washington and not to us) will iiavr to be revoked, if at all, by an 
instrument of e([ual dignity. But if a magnanimous power were 
seriously to bestir itself to make fraud odious, instead of releasing 
it from the four (|uai'ters, and Irom the Innd ([uartei's, to sit at the 
receipt of custom ! CouM one such arise, lie would not be emltar- 
rassiMl by the encounter of great lives, though, undoulitedly. he 
would be l»y innumei'able small ones, .lolui P)right said m bSfil: 
"Wlun 1 state that, for many years past, the annual public expen- 
diture of the (iovernment of the United States has been between 
£1(»,0(I0,(I<MI and ClT), 000,0(10, I need not, ])erliaps, say further, that 
there has always existed amongst all the population an amount of 
comfort, and jirosperity, and abounding plenty, such as I l»elieve no 
other country has enjoyed." So it was. So it is not now. We 



104 

have received ■■moral ideas," been "educated up"'; but compara- 
tively honest dealiui^ between man and man, and therewith "com- 
fort, pros])erity, aboundin<^ ])lcnty" amongst all classes have been 
educated down. The laboring man of the North has been 
"planted on the side of freedom" — of freedom, among other things, 
to be turned out of food and raiment, and have an increase of the 
army held over his head to shoot him down when restive. Of 
taxes, burdens, swift, central financiering over pul)lie spoil, there 
is plenty. Of freedom to steal like the devil, there is an abounding 
plenty. Never was it plainer that for man to earn his bread by 
the sweat of his brow is cursed. But the negro in the South can 
still do, what the laboring man elsewhere finds it so hard to do — 
get himself su])ported by a fair day's work; indeed, considerably 
less than that, notwithstanding the South is so poor and plun- 
dered. It may be that the ex-slave does not shine as bright, on the 
same amount of labor, as before the war. Slavery is said to be on 
the decline in Bra/.il, owing to the fact, that the slaves arc so fat 
they cainiot ))ut in over eight hours work per day. This, of 
making it incarnate, is a compendious way of ]~)assing the "Eight 
Hour fjaw.' of which the woi'king man in America does not appear 
to have bethought him. 

As late as 1854, the Christian Examiner, published in Boston, 
])erceiving that kind feeling springs up where liumau intercourse 
is near and constant, (a fact of num's moral nature which consti- 
tutes a basis for society, more certain and substantial than any 
which contract, or statute, or constitutional amendment can 
afford), made the acknowledgment, no less frank than conde- 
scending, that. "I'or jicrsonal kindness and real affection towards 
the black's, tlic Southrons are as much superior to us, as we 
hold them inlerior in the aiistract sense of justice and right." 
But of which did the negro stand most in need, the abstract or 
the concrete? .Mrs. Stowe, too, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," mentions 
that a missionary among the fugitive slaves in Canada, told her 
that "many of the fugitives confessed themseh'es to have escaped 
from comparatively kind masters." So much is in this one sen- 
teiHH^, that formerly the country ]diysician, in the South, sup- 
ported himself, chietly on the sum, whirl) was paid him by 
Southern masters, for attendance on Soiillurn slaves, that now he 
cannot, as a rule, make :i living in the country, because thei'e are 



105 

no longer masters to pay him for his services. What if the future 
decide that the world, as usual, has judged hy appearances, in 
arraigning the South for a nominal slavery which was substantial 
Justice, and apostrophising the North for the nominal freedom, and 
essential tyranny, of a society honeycombed with the corruption 
of legislative pocket-picking and haste to be rich, grinding the 
faces of the poor — haste, also, to be righteous overmuch? What 
if the future shall say, that what the world called slaverj^, railed 
against as such, rolling up the whites of quite worldly eyes, in 
horror that such a thing should exist, stands forth as a patriarchal, 
beneticent relation, the kindest for the slave, as he cainc to us, not 
as French's ''rights of man"' fain would have him come; and what 
is now lauded to the skies, as •• freedom. '" l)e exhil)ited, as a crticl, 
grasping, sauve qui pent, and Devil take the hindmost, the most 
sordid, the most heartless of all tyranny, the one which most 
degradingly, and least pitifully, shoves the weakest to the wall, and 
keeps him there — that which oscillates between mere numbers and 
mere dollars. Wolves, i( is saitl, have greatly increased in IJussia 
since the emancipation of the serfs, and now number some 200, 000, 
Avhose annual consumption of flesh, including that of human 
beings, is 2,o00 weight per heail. In other ways, whal is l)aj)li/.cd 
with the fine names of fn'cdom and philanthropy is only too apt 
to sul)stitute, for one traffic in human flesh, another more bitter. 
Northern majorilies. in this couiilry, proclaimed liberty to the 
slaves (not their owuj, and then, with indescribable vigor, turned 
wolves to each other. Most plaintive was the speech of a Lowell 
factory girl, some years ago. at a woman's rights convention, in 
AVashington, that no condition of a Southern slave was ever so 
cruel as hers. In this whole question of slavery, remember the 
words of Samuel .lohnson: ••Clear your minds of cant." For. as a 
greater than .lohnson has asked, •• Is not sentimentalism twin sis- 
ter of caiit, if not one and the same with if? Is not cant the 
materia prima of the Devil, from whieh all falsehoods, imbecilities, 
abominations, body themselves; from which no true thing can 
come? Cant is itself a double-distilled Lie, the second power of a 
Lie." 

A portion of the North begin to rccogni/.e. that the views of 
strict construction arc not so pernicious after all; show signs of 
feeling tluMr own need to interpose the shield of State ^sovereignty. 



106 

agtiinst a roaring delugt' of fallacy. The more though tful North 
stands aghast at the undesired results "coming home to roost," of 
the utter overthrow of all the stability of society, in oi'der to 
wreak vengeance. The more thoughtful North is stretching out a 
hand for the character, and high, even if haughty, tone of sincere 
opinion, once common at the South, which, if not proof against 
passion, was against bribery, and helped to make the country a 
fortress of free hearts, whence rang the clear challenge of a repub- 
lic. The old constitutional guarantees, the old ramparts have 
bi'on carried. A Constitution (not clearly written) powerful for 
injury, powerless for redress; poweiful to send troops and merce- 
nary creatures to falsify the votes of States, powerless to correct, 
or even attempt to correct, the certain falsehood, for the present, has 
"changed all that." The light of those tall forms, which stood in the 
breaches of the Constitution to hurl impetuous defiance on its foes, 
is buried quite. The fortress of free hearts lies clean behind us, dead, 
forgotten ; the old defenders gone, the old invincibles. The thought- 
ful North stretches out its hands to-day for that spirit, which a 
thoughtless North has done its best (or its worst) to quench and 
silence. The long walls of Athens were rebuilt, with the aid of 
the Pxcotians and other volunteers, who eleven years earlier had 
danced to the sound of joyful music, when the former walls were 
demolished. Thus sometimes the coiupieror crowns the conquered, 
when the comjuered are true to themselves. Thaunus mentions a 
minister, wdio having long been persecuted I»y his enemies, at 
length triumphed, quia se non deseruit. 

Old gi'ammarians wei-c wont to say. that I'ight was the past |)ar- 
ticij)lc of the verb ngere, to rule; and thus it is that virtue is 
strength, manhood. The force by which strength is equipped for 
its battle is vii'tnc The King of the State is the /2r.r of it, the very 
right of it — (diam])ion and ca])tain of tlu^ right, lie who collects 
in himself, embosoms and enforces that which is wisest and best, 
he is the king, in otlice oi" out of otHce. He is the expression of 
the better nature of the State, the captain of it and the child, by 
virtue of which his right to rule it, is divine. Fnder him royalty 
and loyalty, or law-ally, lircome reci])r()cal. \ brave old word this 
loyalty, though sadly jti'olaned of late, because it does not mean 
subservience to Kings, or Presidents, oi- Congresses, or Unions; but 



107 

faithfulneBS to law. Veracity, rectitude, business method, intrepid 
justice, these are the stroni^, indomitable thin^-s. These are the 
rulers of men, or else revolutions come, because they are not so. 
Falsehood, dishonest}', immethod, venal, cowardly indiflference, 
these are the weak thinii;s, the shallow things, and abomination 
and anarchy are boi-n ol' Iheni. 1Mie laws of nature are "caught 
witli arms in their hands," and seldom or never lay them down, 
whatever the '-inside track" men may object. The flaming sword 
of tlu' universe is never "a dead issue." All this about arl)iti"ament 
of war, true enough, perhaps, in a comprehensive sense, is. in some 
applications of it, extremely sIkiIIow. The arbitraments arrived 
at, "when laws are silent," when all consideratujn ami discussion 
of the right is told to hold its tongue, are always (piestionable, and 
liable to serious revision. A King of Kngland conquered a discord- 
ant French nation, l)ecause it was discordant: which, thereupon, 
under compulsion, crowned the conipieror. The thing settled was, 
that, at tlie time of the invasion, Pjiigland was strong and France 
was weak, and that, as a nation's strength is, so shall her day be. 
In a subtle sense, "he that liveth by the sword (by brute force, vio- 
lation of right) shall perish by the sword." "A right," says Coke, 
"can never die — dormit aliqiiando, jus moritur 7iunqua)/i. For of 
such an high estimation is right in the eye of the law, as the law 
preserveth it from death and destruction; trodden down it may be, 
but nevei' trudden out." Yes, the rightdoesnot go down; does not 
stay down, at least. It does not truly slee]i, but only seems to 
sleej). Whatever mean and base thing pollutes it goes down. The 
too haughty assertion of it goes down. Whatever abust's and 
excesses are covered by the flag of its adherents, their "negli- 
gences and ignorances,'' t heii' tierce taunts and invectives, go down, 
but not the right, forever. We may prove that we are unworthy 
to be the chaniitions of the right, but not that the right is unwor- 
thy of a champion. The mercy of the right is upon us. as our 
trust is in it. Tlu' service()f it is fi-eeiloni. Freedom, let me say 
once more, is the free dominion of the law. 

Unless we are to sink into ho])eless Mexican anarchy, and King 
ruin, out of ]»aiiic bankruptcy will yet be lifted "the Federal 
Union." Hut should this happen, that our jirinciples come again to 
the front, and we not behin<l them : but ojjposmg them, have the 
convictions, consecrati'd bv ourlilooil, thrown iii our teeth 1)V those 



108 

who trod them down! This much has not ceased to be credible: 
Trodden down they may be, but never trodden out! 

We are few in the midst of many enemies. The black ocean of 
implacable hate swells all around us. At its own weapons we can 
not foil it. The much-vaunted ''fighting the Devil with fire" is a 
poor game, and a sadly unequal one. Give the Devil choice of 
pistols, and he will be a})t to shoot you first. Fallacies and chica- 
neries fight only for the father of such. It becomes us, it becomes 
all men, but chiefest them who fight under an adverse star, to see 
and believe, that the moi'al victory over matei-ial ascendanc}'' is 
never out of reach, ^'o dis])arity of force can snatch that from us. 
Public opinion is the moral victoiy of the few over the many. 
Be the faithful few, and the faithless numy will be your footstool. 
In tlie sophistry of mind and manners, to lie intellectually honest 
and brave; in the recrimiiuition, and anarchic fratricide, of cai:)ital 
and labor elsewhere, to keep our own society first just, then, as a 
consequence, peaceful and strong; m the hanging garden of appear- 
ance to be real: ht'i'ein is true strength. 

Had this Association done nothing else than expose, what has 
been tei-tned. --one of the boldest and baldest attempted outrages 
on the truth of history which has evei- lieen essayed," that which 
relates to the treatment of ])i'isonei's at Andcrsonville, it would 
liave deserved the gratitude ol' all lovers of truth. The boldest 
and baldest truly ! Two hundi-ed and I weiily thousand Southern 
prisoners are in the ^'orth: two hundi-cMl and seventy thousand 
Northern prisoners are in the South; the Xoi'th ai)ounds in 
resources; th(» South laid waste, anything but abounding; for 
tliree weeks in the early ])art of 18(i4. unable to issue rations of 
meat to her soldiers in the field. Vet. with filfy thousand more 
])i'isoners in Southerji stockades, the deaths ai'e four thousand 
less; nine j)er cent, the death rate in the South, twelve percent, 
in the Noi'tli. Tin; .South using every humane argument, entreats 
the Noi'tli to lak'e back tlu' prisoners at Andcrsonville. The 
ruling authoi'ily says, --No; my policy of wearing you out by 
attrition demands that these men be not taken back. The more 
of our men yon have to feed, the fewer of your own you will hv. 
abit' to feed. Humanity to the men lel't in our ranks demands, 
that our ]>risoners continue to prey ujion your vitals." ''We are 
unable to |)rovide your ])i'isoners with suitable clothing," we said 



109 

to Seerctaiy Sowimi; "will 3^011 jirovide them?" "The Federal 
Government does not supply elothini>; to prisoners of war," replied 
the Secretary. Trit'(l liy (heir own standard, it is seen, thai our 
care of thoii- ])risoiH'i's was exeeptionably kind. Nevertheless, 
after tlu' war a victim is demanded. A group of citizens, 
''organize<l to convict," unknown to the law, prohibited by the 
law, hears what evidence it likes, refuses to hear what may 
operate against the end in view, renders the presence of counsel 
nugatory, and in duo season proceeds to murder the victim, no 
form or j)rinci])le of law being at any time consulted. "Military 
Commissions never disappoint the expectations of those who 
employ them." It is the act of Macbeth, smearing the daggers of 
the guard, with the blood his own hands have spilled. Defend 
your great days. 

A poem of human- life our battle of the Wdderness easily be- 
comes, fought as it was in the rough brake, and the deep shadow, 
and the tierce death glare. As you strike with intelligent unity 
and decision, determined to conquer or die, you do conquer even 
though you die. At all tmies the strongest is but as a reed shaken 
with the wind, quivering in the play of forces which threaten or 
entreat. Not alone of memorv nuiy it be said, "Thou, like the 
world, the oppressed, oppressing." The forces around human life 
are so. A world of forces, yielding, and taking the shape we give, 
harsh and heavy when we quail or sink, wraps itself around each, 
to hear or forbear as victory inclines. Does supineness intervene? 
The load of a mountain is hung about the neck. Does a cheery 
heart stiffen the s]>inal cohiniir.'' The hard advei'sity melts away, 
or curves into an arch of triumph. '-Two atHictions well put 
together," says the proverl). "shall become a consolation." A poem 
of human life. T say. Tnder the warm touch, the stern fact of 
these two days moulds itself into a symbol of imagination for the 
mind's 03*0 : as such is a reality'; not for one place and time only, 
but for all places, from generation to generation. 

The life of to-day has not ceased to be faithful to the old simdes 
oi" the "Wilderness and warfare. Our life is a battle and a march. 
We tight once more in ••continual, jioisoned fiehls," where, it ma3^ 
be. are mauN- greatlv discontented with the Wilderness, and very 
greatlv indeed preferring the flesh-pots of anv other countrv. 
Solemnh- as ever a mother State savs to each. "With vour shield 



110 

or U])on it." Wc^ liave cliieily to sec to it, tliat when we are borne 
from the liehh it shall he witli the banner of an honorable day, and 
a pious liope. tlnni>; over us, and a music of gentle deeds to com- 
memorate us when we are gone. So fares it with our cause. It 
sleeps well now. as a dead man might, with a stone for his pillow. 
So fares it with a cause, henceforth all enobled ibr us. by honorable 
death on the tield: guarded hencefoi'th l)v the army ot the dead, 
whose dead march the mulHed drum oi" living hearts is beating. 
A hero cause borne on its shield to the grave of hero death, 
pierced with wounds, for us is lovely; covered with reproach, for 
us is ])ure; ci-owned with thorns, for us is lioly. We will never 
Aveave a grander oriflamme to be our fair image of duty and the 
path to it. We are on duty still. ltememl>er the Wilderness! 
how we struck in forlorn valor : lighting for a world's cause, in the 
midst of a world's inditference, when we grajipled in those lonely 
gleams and shadows, as. from age to age. the true heart fights. 
When was the hero's battle other than a lonely battle? Remem- 
ber the whole war! 

Tenderly l)eautiful to-niglit, in its tears and for them, with the 
sweet, pathetic beauty of our last sad farewells, is that great mem- 
ory, which draws us here, and gathers all hearts in one. The sad- 
dest, sternest of all faces — tin; face of the irrevocable — stares on 
us from those fai'ewells — larewells of liope. farewells of valor, fare- 
wells vnui^ (Mit. not in s))eech, but in silence and closed lips, in bat- 
tle and in night, when the very stars glittered icy cold on the field 
of tlu^ slain. The spring and summer of a people's manhood, the 
maul\- sweetni'ss of the warrior boy. the beautiful sim]ilicity we 
shall never see again on this earth, the unbought valor, which 
fronte<l a world in arms, and died fronting — to all these our chival- 
rous farewell! ]S'ol till all noble grace dei)arls will their memory 
dcjKirt. Last Sunday 1 stood again, where Gi-egg's Texans put on 
immortality; where Kershaw led in person three of his brigades, 
to coin])ensate them for the al)sence of the fourth; where the three 
brii^ades under Mahone, charged whooping through the woods. 
Out of the mist of years 1 almost seemed to see the faces, and out 
of the buried din to hear the voices, of the past, speaking those old 
languages, so frank, so bi-ave, so una])])roachabIy dear, just because 
tliey are gone, and return no more. They died that we might not 
live ill vain. It is for us so to live, that the}' shall not have tlied in 



Ill 

vain. An<l if, to-iii<;-ht. this voice from the I'unks coiihi reach the 
leaders, who now marshal the way before us, I would say, ''Look 
there! See what (he nohk- in man can do! At your pei'il oppose 
to it tlie ii^nohle in num. Appeal once more to the watchwords of 
tlie past, to our courai;'e and our conscience, if you wouM inuiew 
for us, and foi- yourselves, the lauri'l of the |)ast. Once more quit 
yourselves like nu'n. The white ])lume of the ages, the flag of 
your duty snniinous you there. The martyred valoi- of the South 
fell, as it was charging right onward there. There, hy the side 
now of his last captain, and of ours, is Jackson, -standing like a 
stone wall ' '" I 

Trnly has it heen said of him whose followers we all were, that 
in the (piiet hall of the professor, he renewed the wai'. transferring 
it to the sphere of mind. In this high s])here. tight we ever, as in 
his eye. To walk firmly in duty, l>ravidy in ])i'inciple. honestly in 
conviction, at all times, is the tirsl duty of a man. We will have 
enough to do to ]U"ove. that the ])low-share of our peace is of the 
same nudal. which went into the glorious swoi-d of our war. 
With us, or without us, hislor}' will say, tiiat in an age whose 
greatest fiction was "without a hero,*' there were two \'irginians, 
wor(h\" to l)e named by tlie side of I'hocion and hipannnondas. 
ft is in our |)ower to cause it to lie added, that the South was 
greater in defeat than hrr enemies in victory: that, indeed, the dif- 
ference between the Xf)rthand South was not so miudi a ditTcj'encc 
between victory and ilefeat, as it was a ditterence between success 
and glory. It may l)e well not to be too certain which scale will 
kick" the beam, with (irant, Sherman, Sheridan, ami succciss all on 
one side; but defeat and liol)ert l^ee, death and Stonewall Jackson, 
all on the other. As plainly enough now stares us in the face, the 
insolent lio]>e of sapjiing liy cori'uption the princi[)les. whicdi could 
not l>e overcome by force. I am tenqUed to say to you, as our great 
captain said to us all. in the trenches of Hagerstown: ''Soldiers! 
voiir old enemy is before.' you. Win fi'om him honor. worth\' xour 
right cause, worthy your comrades, dead on so many illustrious 
fiehls. " 



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